Recent Kit Base Performance

[GeeTwo]

In our five years, we've modified the KoP drive train three times, and built our own twice - not in that order.

In 2012 (Rebound Rumble, rookie year), we upgraded the KoP C-channel chassis with shifting gearboxes. We were unhappy with the rigidity of the chassis, but this was all on us - we cut open one side to do a ball intake and did not adequately support the breach.

In 2013 (Ultimate Ascent), we had a mentor with aluminum welding capability, so we opted out of the kit chassis did our own. We were happy with the chassis, but the time required to move the chassis back and forth for each change ate up far too much of build season. We also made some unfortunate gearing decisions, gearing too fast with only about 2/3 of the weight of the robot on driven wheels.

In 2014 (Aerial Assault), we again opted out of the kit chassis, and built our own C-channel chassis. We were happy with the results. This was the first time we'd bagged a 90%+ functional robot. That year, we also built a full-up prototype in wood, so we had a chance to do a bit of drive and manipulator practice after bag and tag.

In 2015 (Recycle Rush), we were going to opt out of the kit chassis, but missed the deadline. After we had our basic design (5 omni wheel H-drive), we realized that we could build it faster using the kit chassis than a home build, so we bought a second AM14U2 so we could have a practice robot as well as a competition robot. We had quite a few hours of drive practice with the "fully functional" competition robot before bagging, and pulled only the pickup "rake" to continue practicing and development, as our two rakes were far from identical. We were very happy with the chassis (though we had some issues getting the correct weight load on the center wheel).

In 2016 (Stronghold), we opted out of the AM14U3, but purchased two AM14U2's before the season, realizing that almost any design we were likely to build could be adapted from the KoP chassis faster than we could do it ourselves. We had rough plans for over a dozen re-configurations ready for tweaking into our specific needs. We wound up designing a wedge practically identical to the AM wedge, so rather than build it, we bought it. We had ten wheels in four planes, and our only difficulty with the defenses was when we lost or broke a chain. About all we used of the KoP chassis were the main chassis components, the gearboxes, and a few fasteners. We needed different wheels, axles, and more.

For 2017 (TBD), we took advantage of a recent Tuesday deal at Andy Mark and purchased two "frame only" AM14U2 chassis sets at about half price. They're tucked away on a top shelf in the workshop waiting for January. For those who are interested, this consists of only the six large pieces of aluminum (as of this writing, they're available while stock remains).

The bottom line is that the only problems we've had with the KoP chassis in our three years of using it were related to the modifications we made. It saves significant time over the chassis we've built ourselves, so unless we gain significant fabrication capability, we'll probably continue to use (or modify) the kit chassis for the foreseeable future.