Robot Chassis

[Qbranch]

Hello FLL community,

I have a community discussion point, which I'm interested in hearing other teams' opinions about.

Does your team design their own robot chassis each year? Or re-use and tweak the same one every year? Or, does your team use an already designed chassis found online or elsewhere?

The year and the past our team is using a chassis design we found online to start with, to focus on attachments, programming, and any minor modifications we might need to make to the chassis.

What do you do, what are your opinions FLL community?

Thanks,

-q

[BJC]

Originally Posted by Qbranch

Hello FLL community,

I have a community discussion point, which I'm interested in hearing other teams' opinions about.

Does your team design their own robot chassis each year? Or re-use and tweak the same one every year? Or, does your team use an already designed chassis found online or elsewhere?

The year and the past our team is using a chassis design we found online to start with, to focus on attachments, programming, and any minor modifications we might need to make to the chassis.

What do you do, what are your opinions FLL community?

Thanks,

-q

I use to be in FLL and now help out a team in my area so I have some experience. I have always built a new drivetrain -- it's part of the process. This shouldn't be a big deal because legos are so easy to take apart and put togeather; you can try multible configurations in under an hour. This allows you to place the third motor where you need it, make your robot skinny or wide, etc to best fit the game challenge.

If you do build an origional drivetrain I suggest trying smaller wheels and supporting the axel on both sides of the wheel. That'll will give you a very reliable configuration.

Regards, Bryan

[Qbranch]

Originally Posted by BJC

I use to be in FLL and now help out a team in my area so I have some experience. I have always built a new drivetrain -- it's part of the process. This shouldn't be a big deal because legos are so easy to take apart and put togeather; you can try multible configurations in under an hour. This allows you to place the third motor where you need it, make your robot skinny or wide, etc to best fit the game challenge.

If you do build an origional drivetrain I suggest trying smaller wheels and supporting the axel on both sides of the wheel. That'll will give you a very reliable configuration.

Regards, Bryan

Thanks for the thoughts, Bryan. And I'm totally using your signature quote for something.

-q

[Eagleeyedan]

When I was in it, my team just tweaked the design. Now, the team I mentor builds a new one. They build a duplicate as well in case something goes wrong (which has come in handy)

I never did see FLL like the "use parts from last year" FRC. Plus, unlike FRC, you get about a dozen challenges, and obstacles that may restrict robot height and width. For example, my team 3 years ago built a tall robot, since our mechanisms took most of the bottom area, and there was nothing restricting our height (except the height restriction). The next year, there was a bridge section we decided to go under, but in order to do that, we had to have our robot under about 4 inches (I forget the exact number).

So, I'd say a new drivetrain each year is not only best, but also fun!