Building the Structure of the Robot?

[IKE]

Originally Posted by Billfred

2815's past two robots have largely been made of 1" square tubing (1/16" wall) and flat and angle to gusset it. If you don't have the resources for a full-on sheetmetal design, this is hard to top.

I couldn't agree more with Billfred on this one. The switch over to 1/16th wall box will reduce costs and weight as long as you spend some time designing your layout out instead of relying on sliding parts.

This should be an easy switch as it is still 1x1 construction. Some friends on 3302 will pre-drill their square tubing with holes on the center line every 1" (or maybe 3/4 or 1/2"). The small holes allow the box material to be easy construction similar to the "kit" extrusions. this allows allows for some kids that are not interested in design to start making stuff right away while the others design to this constraint. this is a neat option, but you do loose some flexibility of dimension. 1x1 is also really common and in a pinch can be found at most Home Depots.

If weight is a higher priority, switching to round tubing for upper structures is a great weight savings, but significantly harder to work with. Round versus square is a 25% savings for the same wall thickness. Round also has lots more wall thicknesses and material compounds to choose from. This too can add to weight savings. Make sure you get some good pictures of how 469 builds their robots. They are (IMO) masters of the thin wall no weld construction.

***********************

All this being said, 3 of my favorite and most competitive robots last year used 80/20 or star bar (25, 341, and 1023). These 3 were able to do it all. They were good shooters, good at collecting, and able to do the bridge well.