Rookie Season 2014 - Lessons Learned

[ArtemusMaximus]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

A robot's drivetrain is always the most important thing. The second most important thing is the drivetrain, and so is the third.

I don't think the advice was intended to suggest that rookies should put a lot of engineering effort into developing a fancy drivetrain. It's just that the kit drivebase shouldn't be treated as a "black box" that gets handed to teams as an unquestioned given. It should be studied and understood, and there should be actual analysis applied to decisions about the frame dimensions, the size of the wheels, potential alternate gearboxes, etc.

I will tell you this. Our first full test run of the bot was our first game in regionals. So, putting ANY additional effort into any part of the bot (better drivetrain or otherwise) would effectively take us out of the competition.