Testing Past Systems

[Dumper FTW 435]

Over the summer, my team's going to be testing some of our past robots and recording how well the mechanisms and drive systems work. What criteria, or other important things should we note while testing? So far, we plan to see how well our drive systems do on certain angles, how fast they are, and how much they can push. We'll also be recording their gearing and their basic schematic. Mechanisms will focus more on recording any special parts we needed, how well it worked, and any problems we encountered when building/using it.

What else should we test for?

[DonRotolo]

I'd fall back on Scouting. Pretend you're scouting the robot during competition, and make a list of all its actual (not claimed) capabilities in the game for which it was designed. Just be more detailed than usual. Just be realistic: No sense in rating the ramp ability of an Overdrive robot, that wasn't a design goal.

Then pick a few common characteristics (Speed, agility, robustness, climbing ability, etc.) and compare them using the same criteria. These measures may help discern the "Best Drivetrain" or somesuch.

Spend an hour or 2 with each robot, have several students do the rating of the same categories, and have fun.