Robot Storage

[jwallace15]

Originally Posted by apples000

My recommendation is to take pictures, save the frame/wheelbase, and strip everything off.

+1.

We take the manipulators off and save the chassis. We took the arm off of our 2011 robot and now have a mechanum chassis. We used our 2006 practice chassis as our practice chassis this year. Keeping chassis is good if you plan on using different drive systems in the future.

Also: CalTran, I think it is 16. They showed off their old robots in their 2012 robot unveil video.

[orangemoore]

Originally Posted by jwallace15

+1.

Also: CalTran, I think it is 16. They showed off their old robots in their 2012 robot unveil video.

16 is Bomb Squad

[jwallace15]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

16 is Bomb Squad

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

It is.

I know.

I was saying that in a tone like "It is 16". It's hard to catch the tone of someone through writing

[Jeff Waegelin]

We keep our old robots on top of some storage shelves at IFI. We have every robot since 1993 lined up, in chronological order. A few of the oldest ones aren't very recognizable anymore, but everything from 1999 on is mostly intact. The world champions (1993, 2008) get a special display location in the VEX lab. It's pretty cool to see a visual history of our team's past.

On a related note - when I was on 126, they had all the old robots hanging from the ceiling like 16 does. Pretty neat idea if you want to save floor space... just make sure you have solid cables and attachment points!

[TheMadCADer]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

... just make sure you have solid cables and attachment points!

Shouldn't be too hard for this year's robot, then.

[Clem1640]

Bottom of the pool would be a good option. This space is always underutilized and every swim could be like a wreck drive.

Seriously, though, we are in 9th year as an FRC team; we've built two complete robots for the last three years; and I do not think we have ever had more than 4 assembled robots at any given time. Space limitations are one important reason for this, but so is part recycling. Especially when building two robots, we realize some real savings by recycling old parts.

The robots we keep are kept because we believe that they will be useful. As testbeds. OP-FORCE training robots, or demos. We currently keep 4 working robots (some just as chassis) for these purposes.

We do document our robots thoroughly, so as not to lose institutional knowledge when we disassemble an old robot.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by jwallace15

Also: CalTran, I think it is 16. They showed off their old robots in their 2012 robot unveil video.

It is. I've offered to take their 08 bot off of Meredith's hands a couple times.