Did you make a second robot? [POLL]

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by JohnFogarty

I've never been on a team that made a practice robot. Do I want to, yes. [...]

I'd personally like to know what the logistics are in building 2+ robots. Do you build them side by side, is it one is the prototype bot from early in build then the other the competition bot, and how early do you have to build them to get them done fast enough to have one ready for bag...

I think the poll is missing an option for "we would if we could afford it!"

Logistics will depend on your team's capabilities. For us, both robots were based on KoP bases (one AM14U3, one AM14U2). We built and wired the two drivebases (no frame cutting, so they were big squares) the weekend after kickoff so that we could try driving them over obstacles, prototype some designs, and give the software teams something to play with. The results of the prototyping told us how to size and chamfer the frame perimeter as well as to go with pneumatic tires.

Once the design was locked down we fabricated the parts for both at once, but built them in sequence, so that while one drivebase was being retrofitted, the other one would still be available for software teams. We would then hand off the first finished robot to other teams (drive team, autonomous, control software, vision) while the fabrication team took back the second KOP chassis and converted it into the other robot.

The hope was that this build/swap/build sequence would have resulted in both working identical robots before bag and tag. This didn't quite happen of course so we bagged the first complete robot and finished the practice bot by the following weekend.

The practice bot is actually the better built of the two since we made all our mistakes on the first assembly, and the second assembly went much quicker as well.