Production Timeline

[lemiant]

In an especially intensive FRC game, what would be a realistic production timeline, with an extremely well prepared team:

Assuming I have a fully CADed robot. Assuming the creation of each component and assembly of each mechanism have been separated into individual, well documented, tasks. Assuming I have fairly advanced shops (Polytechnic level CNCs, Sheet Metal Shop, Lathe, Welder, Drill Press). Assuming that we have students, well trained on the machines, who are working 12hrs a day (Yeah, that's right! Here in Calgary we get school off for all of January). How long would it take to go from a CAD to a robot?

I would also love time estimates for individual tasks.

[Hawiian Cadder]

depends, our shop is extremely well outfitted for milling, and very badly outfitted for turning.

[MrForbes]

It could take anywhere from a day to six weeks. It's really hard to say, without seeing the design, and the facilities you have, etc. There are an infinite number of ways to design and build an FRC robot.

[lemiant]

Originally Posted by squirrel

It could take anywhere from a day to six weeks. It's really hard to say, without seeing the design, and the facilities you have, etc. There are an infinite number of ways to design and build an FRC robot.

Well we don't know the design, since the game doesn't come out for 227 days, but it will be a robot designed with a full suite of components (i.e. there will not be necessary components left out for simplicity sake). Facilities are as described above: CNC mill, CNC lathe, manual mill & lathe, sheet metal CNC, MIG welder.

[BJC]

Originally Posted by lemiant

In an especially intensive FRC game, what would be a realistic production timeline, with an extremely well prepared team:

Assuming I have a fully CADed robot. Assuming the creation of each component and assembly of each mechanism have been separated into individual, well documented, tasks. Assuming I have fairly advanced shops (Polytechnic level CNCs, Sheet Metal Shop, Lathe, Welder, Drill Press). Assuming that we have students, well trained on the machines, who are working 12hrs a day (Yeah, that's right! Here in Calgary we get school off for all of January). How long would it take to go from a CAD to a robot?

I would also love time estimates for individual tasks.

In an easier game (2011 for ex.) you can expect most of the Powerhouse teams to have 2 complete robots by day 30 and to spend the rest of the season improving, developing code, and driving.

In a very difficult game (2010 for ex.) you could expect these teams to have 1.5 robots done by day 30 and to spend their extra build season time developing their solution the the very difficult parts of the game (2010 ball gripper) while still doing the usual general imrovement, code/ auto development, and driver practice.

If you have students working hard for 12 hours a day (against child labor laws?) you could theoretically have a competitive robot by day 15-20ish. But even 118 can't do that.

Considering that you are a rookie team, despite your machining capability, I would highly suggest keeping your first robot simple to allow time for programming/ driving while keeping the bot low maintaince. Simple robots tend to win and most good robots are deceptively simple.

Hope this helps, Bryan

[lemiant]

Originally Posted by BJC

In an easier game (2011 for ex.) you can expect most of the Powerhouse teams to have 2 complete robots by day 30 and to spend the rest of the season improving, developing code, and driving.

In a very difficult game (2010 for ex.) you could expect these teams to have 1.5 robots done by day 30 and to spend their extra build season time developing their solution the the very difficult parts of the game (2010 ball gripper) while still doing the usual general imrovement, code/ auto development, and driver practice.

If you have students working hard for 12 hours a day (against child labor laws?) you could theoretically have a competitive robot by day 15-20ish. But even 118 can't do that.

Considering that you are a rookie team, despite your machining capability, I would highly suggest keeping your first robot simple to allow time for programming/ driving while keeping the bot low maintaince. Simple robots tend to win and most good robots are deceptively simple.

Hope this helps, Bryan

Thanks, that is what I was looking for. Specifically I'm wondering how long the physical building of the robot takes.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by lemiant

Thanks, that is what I was looking for. Specifically I'm wondering how long the physical building of the robot takes.

It depends on a couple of factors. I can't give anything for sure because of both of those factors.

1) Robot Design. In general, a more complex design takes longer to build. Even with a bit of practice at swerves, it will take longer to do a swerve than a 6WD. The simpler the design, and the fewer parts it has, the faster, in general.

2) Time to CAD. You're leaving this out. It's reasonable to figure that to get to the point of a full CAD, 2 weeks is the target time. However, all that CAD time does not have to exclude building time. If you have half of the robot designed, or a key part, get busy building before the CAD is done and you shave off time.

3) Shipping time. You need material, and that takes time to arrive. Especially if BaneBots (or some other supplier) doesn't anticipate the sudden massive demand on their product caused by 2000 FRC teams and runs into a supply shortage.

4) This is the big one, but precision will kill you. If you have a wider tolerance, you can get stuff done faster, but you may need to widen holes or move them to get stuff to fit. (Or you get a "slop fit", which needs to be checked every match to avoid the looseness growing...) But, it will work eventually. On the other hand, having everything with very high precision/tight tolerance means that if you mess anything up, you have to go to a slop fit/re-"machined" jury rig setup. It also takes longer to do.

From experience: I'll go with the 330 machines I worked on, 2003-2007.
2003: About 3 weeks. The last 4 days were spend replacing a cast-iron gear in a gearbox. Simple machine (4WD, 4-bar arm, 2 single-joint pneumatic wedges, single-motor jaws).
2004: About 3-4 weeks. We weren't exactly done on ship date. Complicated machine (4WD, 2-motor lift, 2-motor arm on top of the lift, 1-motor slider device at the top of the lift, 2x pneumatic extensions in 2 different places, 1 winch-locker--and a testing device on the robot at ship didn't get finished and was later replaced)
2005: Week 4, we cut metal. Week 5.5, we were driving. One joint was the holdup--once it was located, full speed ahead. Simple machine (6WD, single-pivot arm, 2x 3-hinge wedges)
2006: IIRC, started around Week 3-4, finished around ship date. Relatively complex machine (6WD, 3-motor+gravity multi-belt ball-handling system)
2007: Practice robot running Week 3, competition around Week 6 just about complete (there were changes from the practice robot). "Simple" machine: 6WD, single-joint arm with pneumatic extension/gripper, 2 independent ramps. See 330's 2011 robot for an idea what it looked like.