"The Little Things" - Helpful hints for all

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by MichaelBick

What if they didn't have the human feeding stations this year. Intakes would have been pretty important then. The point is that you cannot make a generalization about a manipulator because it is totally game dependent.

Then it would have been a much different game.


I'll make several generalizations about next year right now (and I have no more knowledge of the game than you do at this point).

If there are multiple games pieces 95% of the teams that attempt to manipulate both will fail at both.


If there is an option to human load or ground load, of the teams that choose to ground load upwards of 50% would be MORE effective had they chosen to optimize human load and their manipulator.

The overwhelming majority of ground pickup systems will work great in the shop but are utterly ineffective while being controlled from 60' away. The prediction? Most of these teams will waste over 1 minute of the match attempting to pick up an element in most of their matches.

Why can I make these bets? Because I'm betting against the teams not the game. The simple fact is in 2012 I saw more teams focus on picking up a ball from the floor for 1.5 minutes in a match... But their shooter was useless. They would have been better off optimizing a human load only approach. It's all allocation of resources.

[Mark Sheridan]

Well any ways, back to the topic.

Make sure your motors wont trip the breakers or burn out the motors. For drive trains that can mean having a gear that is traction limited and for other mechanisms is may a form of stall detection.

[EricH]

This would have been more important a couple years back, but it's still relevant:

Whatever the maximum dimension(s) are, build the robot 1/2" to 1" undersized... just in case your measurement happens to differ from the inspectors' measurement. They WILL make you shrink the robot!

[AlexH]

keep the design simple. the fewer moving parts that can break the better.

design for serviceability. you shouldn't have to this to get to a bolt.

pick your driver before the season and design the robot to fit their driving style so you get the most out of your machine. i've seen too many teams with mecanum drive, never really use it. as an ex driver who has a very aggressive "in your face" driving style, a 13fps single speed 4cim robot with average traction was suboptimal for how i drove.

[DampRobot]

Weight (beyond just making inspection) really does make a difference. We drove noticeably faster with our offseason intake off rather than on. Not everyone wants to build a 90lb robot, but those that do will accelerate much faster than the vast majority of teams.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

Weight (beyond just making inspection) really does make a difference. We drove noticeably faster with our offseason intake off rather than on. Not everyone wants to build a 90lb robot, but those that do will accelerate much faster than the vast majority of teams.

Also don't underestimate the height to CG has on handling and general feel to the driver. From the minor end of weight transfer front > back (but no angular change) all the way to enough weight transfer to cause angular change it's all varying levels of annoying to the driver.

This effect is magnified during turns. We've had drivers complain about tall robots having weird turning characteristics during accelerating turns, and I'm certain this is affected by weight transfer.

[Nemo]

If you have old crap in the shop that you're almost certainly never going to need or want, throw it out. Do that every year.

[BBray_T1296]

Originally Posted by Nemo

If you have old crap in the shop that you're almost certainly never going to need or want, throw it out. Do that every year.

Or recycle it. We took scrap aluminum to a recycler in town, where they pay $0.50/lb for Aluminum.
I don't remember the prices for copper and steel, but they buy it

Overall, we made $100 off of 2 KOP bins of little chips and pieces too small to be used. Not a huge amount, but it buys a pizza party.

[Carolyn_Grace]

If you don't know something, don't be afraid to ask.

If you have students with nothing to do, and no extra hands to teach them something, have a list of things on hand for them to do.

I created this document for my team, just for that purpose: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...2dtMwW8T4/edit

Feel free to make a copy of this and edit it to fit your own team. (And feel free to give me suggestions to add!)

[Nemo]

Originally Posted by BBray_T1296

Or recycle it. We took scrap aluminum to a recycler in town, where they pay $0.50/lb for Aluminum.
I don't remember the prices for copper and steel, but they buy it

Overall, we made $100 off of 2 KOP bins of little chips and pieces too small to be used. Not a huge amount, but it buys a pizza party.

Good point. We actually give our aluminum to the metals teacher, who does aluminum casting/molding in his class. He has quite a few aluminum ingots made from former robot parts. But yeah, we don't throw metals into the trash.

[themccannman]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Also don't underestimate the height to CG has on handling and general feel to the driver. From the minor end of weight transfer front > back (but no angular change) all the way to enough weight transfer to cause angular change it's all varying levels of annoying to the driver.

Unless you are 973's driver, who can manage to drive a robot on one wheel without tipping it over.

Additional tip: Always have a way to keep in contact with every team member, you'll never know when you need a certain person in the pits or down on the field.

[Nemo]

Buy a label maker and label all of the drawers and boxes in the shop.

[Celia]

-Label, label, label. We label our tool cart and cupboards. This makes it so much easier for anyone to grab you a part. Our bolt cases has CADed bolts taped to the top so we can quickly grab a bolt and know for sure what size it is.

-Keep things clean, whether it be your shop, pit, or robot. So many things are preventable when you stay clean. Less safety hazards, better pits, less malfunctioning parts. Someone have nothing to do? They clean.

-Network. I have had two years in FIRST and I already know so many people on other teams. For those new to Chief Delphi, networking really does help you in the long run. Maybe you'll be picked for an alliance because of it.

-Teach. If a team member asks you a question, answer them. Don't say "I don't know" or "Because I said so". If they're taking the time to ask, help them understand. If you don't know, tell them where they might find an answer. No one likes to do things blindly.

-Scout well. Never blow off scouting. It doesn't matter if you're placed last in your competition all day, you never know what will happen. Scouting not only helps in alliance selection, but in every match you play.

-If you get stressed, take a break. Too many people try to work when they're obviously frazzled. When you work while stressed, errors are made, and the stress increases.

[jijiglobe]

Ziptie-ing batteries is a big deal. it seems like the connectors are so tight that they'd never get unplugged but we lost an eliminations match because of it. It may actually have saved us the next game though because our opponents wasted the entire match trying to knock our battery out (we ziptied it though).

[Chadfrom308]

THE LITTLE 1/2" BUMP

It is a problem for us almost every year!

2011: The 1/2" bump around the mini bot pole: Made us Red-card many times for contacting the pole above the red line

2012: Didn't affect us much, but our mecanums got stuck on the Key sometimes

2013: The bump around the pyramid legs: When we ran into it, it destroyed our scoop many times. More than it should've

-PREPARE FOR THE BUMP-