Building two bots

[reymac]

Team 73 is building two bots as well this year for similar reasons that Ed mentioned.

My only worry is that you guys are aiming for week 5. To get two useful bots done (an oops bot and a competition bot) done, I would aim for week 3. That way you can practice with one bot and start building your competition bot simultaneously. Week 5 is just too late in my book, it leaves no time to order parts (a lot of things are out of stock by then) or fix any problems that will come up.

[Iaquinto.Joe]

Originally Posted by reymac

My only worry is that you guys are aiming for week 5. To get two useful bots done (an oops bot and a competition bot) done, I would aim for week 3. That way you can practice with one bot and start building your competition bot simultaneously. Week 5 is just too late in my book, it leaves no time to order parts (a lot of things are out of stock by then) or fix any problems that will come up.

One of the main problems is that we only meet 3-4 times a week for 4-5 hours each time. The team leaders want the entire robot in CAD but we don't have that nailed down yet. We need to kick it into overdrive I think. Personally, i'm on the programming team and we have very little completed. Drive train code is finished (Reused 2011 code) and dashboard is nearly functional. We're looking to get vision done by next Saturday but finals are this week so...

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Iaquinto.Joe

One of the main problems is that we only meet 3-4 times a week for 4-5 hours each time. The team leaders want the entire robot in CAD but we don't have that nailed down yet. We need to kick it into overdrive I think. Personally, i'm on the programming team and we have very little completed. Drive train code is finished (Reused 2011 code) and dashboard is nearly functional. We're looking to get vision done by next Saturday but finals are this week so...

Next year when you have the practice bot in your possession you will be able to make the process more efficient.

[reymac]

Originally Posted by Iaquinto.Joe

One of the main problems is that we only meet 3-4 times a week for 4-5 hours each time. The team leaders want the entire robot in CAD but we don't have that nailed down yet. We need to kick it into overdrive I think. Personally, i'm on the programming team and we have very little completed. Drive train code is finished (Reused 2011 code) and dashboard is nearly functional. We're looking to get vision done by next Saturday but finals are this week so...

Hmm...You are right. You guys need to kick it into overdrive. Coding is typically not the most time consuming part since you don't need to code when the whole team meets. But you need to talk with your team's leader and remind him/her that time's ticking.

If you guys aren't a very focused group, you may need to just do one robot and get students "behind the wheel". If my choices were two robots and no practice time or one robot with practice time, I'd pick the latter.

[kingbrandon14]

My team is building 2 robots for the first time this year, but we are taking a different approach than usual. Instead of having 2 identical robots, we are building 2 slightly different robots, and choosing the better of the 2 to go to competition with. We will then use the 2nd one to practice between bag-day and competition. We are planning to be able to shoot 3 point shots, as well as climb to the third level.

[Anupam Goli]

Our team is aiming to build 2 robots this year. While this is my first time attempting to do so, one of our other mentors has years of experience building two robots and scheduling time appropriately so. We've already started cutting out enough parts for 2 chassis. One of the chassis will be going to the programmers for refining drive code and the vision targeting. The other robot will be the practice robot, and will have the first iteration of designed parts on it. We'll produce a 2nd iteration of parts that fix any problems with the first iteration, and this will go on the final robot, which the programmers will have been working on until that point. We aim to have both done by week 6, and have the practice bot be used for constant practice and refining for our week 1 and week 3 events.