How many days do your programmers get with a fully built robot before stop build day?

[ASD20]

Originally Posted by Hitchhiker 42

A lot of teams do a second practice robot. Our team hasn't done one yet, but we want to this year. Is there any advice you'd give to a lower-budget team on doing this?

There are two types of practice bots that teams build: prototype bots and replica competition bots. Prototype bots are built first and then the lessons learned from them go into building the competition bot. These are not exactly the same as the competition bot, since revisions are typically made after it is built. Replica bots are built at the exact same time as the the competition bot and are usually identical save for a paint job or other cosmetic things.

It is important to know which type of practice bot you want to build. I think most teams go more of the prototype bot route, though some will upgrade it after bag to make it as close as possible. Warning: if you go this route and have the intention of using it after bag to program, YOU WILL NOT be able to transfer code and have stuff just work. (side story: This year we did this and our first competition match of the season we drove backwards in auto. Turns out our practice bot had the intake on the other side and that is what the programmers programmed our auto to.) I have plenty of other stories where that came from and this was our first year building a practice bot.

Regardless of what type of bot you build, I would say to expect to spend equal or greater than what you spend on your competition bot. Not only do you need to buy another control system, you will find yourself having to buy more of things that you had one bot's worth of just lying around in the shop. Ultimately if you are trying to build a second bot with near-identical functionality, you will need to get near-identical parts. There are areas that you can save a little money, like using older motor controllers, but I would say the best case scenario is you plan to spend 2x and you end up slightly under budget.