paper: FRC973 2009 and on robot CAD files

[craigboez]

Great robots, and thanks for posting all the CAD. I certainly don't expect anybody to give away so much information, but am very grateful for it.

I assume the rack on your 2011 proto bot was custom, given it's look and your team's track record of making their own gears. Would you mind giving some tips on how you do this? What kind of equipment and sponsorship does a team need to successfully cut their own spur gears and racks? Just putting something like this on a robot is prohibitively expensive for most teams.

Also, kudos for putting two gears on the CIM shaft. Great idea/design.