Why do we bother bagging?

[TikiTech]

Howzit!!

As an outer island team we have no other option but to crate our robot. Yes in its' bag..
As a small team with 3 volunteer mentors, burnout is one of the hardest thing to avoid.

This year was especially difficult. We had numerous supply issues. We started ordering aluminum stock as well as drivetrain parts in early December. Just to have it all delayed until the end of January.

When we did finally did get our stock we had the misfortune of our competition frame warping during welding of the upper structures to it. Sadly a student clamped the parts far too hard before he welded it...

Tough learning moment, and as it turns out, we are turning it into a practice shooting bot.
We decided to withhold our shooter system for it. We now have plans to repair the frame and turn it into a tee shirt cannon during the off season. An ideal moment to turn a negative into a positive!

When our transmissions did arrive, they were not complete. VexPro did come through and ship us the missing parts in record time, thankfully.

All these “setbacks” caused us to have to complete our robot in a little less than 3 weeks.

We helped maximize our build time and reduce the “burnout” by working in shifts.

Even so, we are quite spent… Not to mention we have other competition during this time taxing our students as well…

That said.. I think the tag and bag is a good end to the build season. It gives completion to the process.

Yes I would of just rather crated it and ship it off, since we have to do it anyways, but with the bag process it gives us a few days to properly load what is needed in our crate prior to shipping.

The first year or two, for us, the stop build day was a stressful event. Just to get everything tossed in the crate and make the robot fit as fast as possible was crazy.
The bagging process reduces a lot of packing and shipping stress on us and THAT is a good thing.. We get about a week to properly gather the correct spares and tools needed properly crated and safely secure our robot.

I like the idea of district competition but out here it is not feasible yet. There just isn’t enough teams locally. Even if there was, half of us will still need to ship our robot to the venue. If the competition is over multiple weekends that would be costly to do, even if the robot was stored at the venue for the weeks of the competition. The costs for travel and lodging would not make it feasible for most of the teams here. Shipping is the biggest killer to the teams in Hawaii. Everything is either boated, takes a minimum of 11 days from California, or air freighted which is super expensive and still take 3-4 days at best.

If Hawaii was added as a district competition, with all the additional travel and time, it would sure add to the mentor burnout..

Sorry for the long winded post. Good luck to everyone this season,

Aloha!