Sheet Metal vs KitBot

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by lemiant

I just watched:

http://www.simbotics.org/media/video...itbot-steroids

They seem to be really advocating the KitBot in this video, yet 1114 themselves and most of the advanced teams build a sheet metal chassis. Which is better?

It's not about which is better, it's about which is better for your team. For a lot of FIRST teams, they have the resources (financial, material and experience) to build custom drivetrains that can be very lightweight, yet maintaining robustness and effectiveness. However, most FIRST teams don't have these resources. As such the kitbot can be a great solution for them.

The "kitbot on steroids" as we've coined it, is a simple drivetrain that be put together in a couple of days using just the KOP and a few additional COTS parts. When constructed properly, it's extremely robust and reliable, and far more effective than the average FIRST drivetrain. (At least based on what we've seen over the years.) The time and resources saved by building this drivetrain allow teams to focus on practicing, programming and of course the designing and building of other manipulators. For years it's frustrated our team to see so many teams with so much potential who end up with underperforming custom drivetrains, that could have been easily avoided. That's why we made this video and have been promoting it heavily. Look for us to publish improved documentation to go with it this fall.