Where is your team at now?

[bs7280]

I am curious as to how much progress each team has made in the several days since kickoff. I am especially curious about how similar teams are at this stageof the game and if there is at all a major difference between how the championship teams operate and how average and rookie teams operate this early in the season.

[yash101]

We have been divided, working on our own parts. The sad thing is I can't do the programming because all the programmers have been separated!

[MrForbes]

the championship teams are too busy working to be posting on CD

[z_beeblebrox]

• Functional/ Performance Specifications Complete
• KoP inventoried
• AM14U assembled, wired and running; another for the practice robot ordered
• Catapult prototyped, works pretty well
• Catcher somewhat prototyped
• Intake mostly designed, prototype construction begun

We're well ahead of where we were last year and on our way to meet our milestone of having a general robot design by the end of the week.

[sprocketman92]

Meanwhile Indiana teams are still trying to dig themselves out of the snow to get too their build space for the first build meeting

[BEN35678]

We are just about done prototyping catapults and starting to build our chassis

[Phyrxes]

Designing chassis options, prototyping "projection methods," and making all those fun decisions that have to be made during week one.

[Whippet]

We are currently finishing our KOP drivebase, prototyping launchers, and beginning to write stand-in code for any manipulator we use.

[Zealii]

Originally Posted by sprocketman92

Meanwhile Indiana teams are still trying to dig themselves out of the snow to get too their build space for the first build meeting

I'm from Indiana and we have already met 5 times.

[bEdhEd]

701's first few days have been surprisingly chill, and I have no idea why.
I come into the robotics lab/shop, nobody is rushing, nobody seems stressed, and none of our committee leaders seem to be having a hard time getting people to do their job. Usually, the beginning and the end of the season are the most hectic times! We're all just pretty relaxed and getting our prototyping done. So far, we have few worries and high morale.

We are progressing on our ball pickup/manipulator/shooter. It's all gonna be one integrated component. It's a similar idea to 1114's 2008 robot, and this component can pivot from front to back, so we need not turn during assists, and it will pick up off the floor as well. The method of shooting is still uncertain, but at least we know that we have a plausible method to pick it up first. That's more important at this stage of design.

[E Dawg]

Our drive frame is almost done and will probably be completed by 8:00 pm today.

[chibi_mechanic]

Personally, I'm the rookie-est you can get, and my team has a lot of rookies this year, but we also have a lot of experienced members. Last I checked, we were still drafting our designs in SolidWorks. I'm not sure how far we have gotten in the past day (as I couldn't make the meeting due to homework overload- thanks midterms!) but I' pretty sure we should be starting prototyping either today or tomorrow. Is this a good place to be at, a week into the challenge??

[bEdhEd]

Originally Posted by chibi_mechanic

Personally, I'm the rookie-est you can get, and my team has a lot of rookies this year, but we also have a lot of experienced members. Last I checked, we were still drafting our designs in SolidWorks. I'm not sure how far we have gotten in the past day (as I couldn't make the meeting due to homework overload- thanks midterms!) but I' pretty sure we should be starting prototyping either today or tomorrow. Is this a good place to be at, a week into the challenge??

That would depend on how many robots you plan to build in a season.

For one robot, you're on pace, but my team's philosophy, is that if you're only doing one bot, finish a week to a week and a half early, so there's adequate time to practice your drive team, so don't wait till bag n' tag night to screw on that last bolt. An under-trained drive team is no good to even the best built robots.

If you're building two robots, you've got lots of overlapping projects and multitasking going on. I'll use my team's typical schedule as an example: Prototyping starts on day one, and is usually done no further than a week and a half in. During this period, the drive chassis is already decided (generally the design is decided before the season) which is a 6 wheel drop center, and is simultaneously being welded as the prototype for our ball manipulator is being developed.

After numerous mock-up systems made of wood, plastic, and spare parts, we begin development of the first robot by week two once we decide on a design, and the CAD model on Inventor is complete enough to start work. We consider this our practice/prototype robot. The benefit of a first robot, is that we can see any problems that can be fixed, so we don't make the same mistake on the second, final bot. The practice bot should be completely done by week four, and work on the final bot begins in the middle of week three, with chassis and frame welding going on at the same time practice bot is being finished. Because we already built one robot, making a copy is a breeze.

The final robot is finished in under a week and a half, powered coated, and tested for driving and used for practice. In the mean time that the final bot is in progress, the practice bot is used for the drivers, so they at least have a week to two weeks to practice, and when the final robot is done, we have our drive team A practice with final bot, and drive team B practice with practice/proto bot. We have two drive teams in the event that students cannot make it to competitions (for money problems or failing grades), or are MIA on lunch break (if they get one) at a regional.

Then we have a big potluck on bag n' tag night, where we show all the parents the twin robots, what they do, decide what is in our holding allowance, and then bag the final robot for competition, and keep the practice bot for more driver practice up until the first regional! Having an identical robot also means that you can fine tune a system that was in the witholding allowance. Just mount the system on practice bot, and tune it to the right configurations for both autonomous and teleoperated tasks, so you can literally extend your build season to seven or eight weeks. And then even more driver practice with the practice bot in between competitions.

We go hard with the drive team practice stuff now. They are the people who win your matches.

If you haven't seen it, check out Team701TV on youtube, and look up our 2013 build season video, you can see that we build a practice bot, and then a clean, professional final bot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kziarAdQRyo

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

KOP inventoried
Complete Team rules read-through
Strategy Complete
Design Complete
Parts have been ordered
Today we are moving to our build location and tomorrow we cut metal

All this despite Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday school being cancelled due to Snow/Cold. Yay Michigan!

Actually, this is the first time in 8 years we've had the design completed before the end of the first week. Yay snow?

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Zebra_Fact_Man

KOP inventoried
Complete Team rules read-through
Strategy Complete
Design Complete
Parts have been ordered
Today we are moving to our build location and tomorrow we cut metal

All this despite Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday school being cancelled due to Snow/Cold. Yay Michigan!

Actually, this is the first time in 8 years we've had the design completed before the end of the first week. Yay snow?

Did you design virtually? The one thing that I see missing was prototyping. Is this something you forgot to mention or did your team forgo this step?