Mythical Six Week Build Season

[techhelpbb]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

And how does that compare to the 6 week build season? In my experience, it is entirely possible to build a successful robot in 6 weeks. It's also possible to blow your own schedule and not meet the deadline. Figuring out how to deal with that, the importance of checkpoints and adjustments along the way is a crucial part of engineering.

Sure anyone should be able able to assemble the KOP and have a driving robot and very likely an end effector in 6 weeks.

Will assembling that KOP teach you about programming? Not so much.
Will assembling that KOP teach you about CNC? Not so much.
Will assembling that KOP teach you electronics? Not even a FIRST goal for the most part (hence we provide the control system).

My point: what is your goal to merely build a robot to show up on the field?

My goal is not just to build a robot, it's to educate and mentor students in the skills that built that robot. So will I be successful? Sure I will reduce my scope till we succeed at the price of my goals which are larger than the time provided.

I can do this even faster. I can just build the robot myself with 2 or 3 trained engineers and let the students watch and learn how it is done. Accumulating none of the tactile education they could have gotten. Heck I've built military robots I can just show up and hand them the controls teaching them with the right amout of money you can buy someone else's hard work. Military probably prefer this anyway: drone pilots that when they retire no longer have drones.