[FTC]: "Keep it simple, stupid:" design ideas seemingly ignored in FTC

[normalmutant]

Originally Posted by team F.T.C 4240

I don't think just being simple is the only thing, I think the main think that will help is time, as in working on the robot a lot.

Well, our team didn't start working on our final robot seriously until over new year's. Though I guess you're right about the time - we had some long meetings until like 2am.
Another thing that we did was go to as many competitions as possible. Robots mess up more at competitions, so we went to as many as possible so we could find out what the problems were and address them.

Originally Posted by team F.T.C 4240

Simple (less stuff can break/more reliable)
Quick (not necessarily talking about the drive system. But so you don't waste a ton of time trying to dispense/ score)
Effective (as in for this year collecting without losing 10 batons trying to collect 5, and scoring consistently)
And Robust/shielded (so defense robots can't mess up/damage you're robot as easily, and so stuff doesn't break as easily, also if you are shielded and have a geared down drive system then you can score and protect yourself)

Quickness was our problem this year. Not necessarily with driving, but with strategy and getting lined up to score in time. Of course, it didn't help that most teams would defend against us like their life depended on it.