Team Structure and Build Schedule

[tomy]

This year one of our teams mentors is backing to spend more time with his family. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to write up a schedule for the build season. Looking for feedback on what I have so far.

Week 1
	Awards Committee / Marketing:
		Update Chairman's Award
		Look into other awards
		Take pictures
		Update Website and Calendar
		Weekly update on facebook of progress
		Videos of progress


	Mechanical:
		Analyze the game 
		Take notes on what is the best way to score
		Where is the best place to score from
		Look up different designs 
		Prototype different ideas out of cardboard, wood, legos etc.
		Working prototypes by the end of the week
		Start putting prototypes in CAD


	Electrical:
		Look up how to wire the robot
		Read the rules on wire sizing
		Test bed by the end of the week
		Look into pneumatics


	Programming:
		Look up how to install C++
		Look up basic programming tutorials
		Install Microsoft visual studio
		Cplusplus tutorials


Week 2
	Awards Committee / Marketing:
		Chairman’s should be near completion
		Other awards should be started
		Take pictures and update social media
		Video of progress


	Mechanical:
		Narrow down to 3 prototype designs
		Should be drawn roughly in CAD
		Prototypes should be working
		Bill of materials
		Bumper Started


	Electrical:
		Test bed should be working
		Start pneumatics test bed


	Programming:
		Cplusplus tutorials 
		Data types
		Functions
		Visual Studio examples
		Start looking into really programming on the test bed


Week 3
	Awards Committee / Marketing:
		Finalizing other awards
		Pictures
		Social Media


	Mechanical:
		One final working prototype 
		Drawn in CAD
		Order parts if needed
		Base should be build by end of the week
		Bumpers started


	Electrical:
		Pneumatics board should be done
		Wiring sensors?
		Gyro
		Accelerometer
		Limit Switches


	Programming:
		Test board should be fully working
		Pneumatics should be fully working 
		Look into sensors


Week 4
	Awards Committee / Marketing:
		Finish awards
		Pictures
		Social Media






	Mechanical:
		Building final design based off CAD drawings
		Debugging robot
		Bumpers done


	Electrical:
		Wiring Robot


	Programing:
		Programming actual robot


Week 5
		Robot Done
		Working on Auto
		Driving and debugging 
Week 6
		Robot Done
		Working on Auto
		Driving and debugging

[jaredhk]

Originally Posted by tomy

Week 1
	Awards Committee / Marketing:
		Update Chairman's Award
		Look into other awards
Week 2
	Awards Committee / Marketing:
		Chairman’s should be near completion
		Other awards should be started

Week 3
	Awards Committee / Marketing:
		Finalizing other awards
Week 4
	Awards Committee / Marketing:
		Finish awards

If when you say Chairman's you are just talking about the essay, I'm not sure what your preseason looks like but if possible, you may want to try and finish Chairman's prior to build season. If you are talking just about the presentation or video, I think that is fine to leave some of until the season.

Also, other awards...if you are talking about something like Woodie Flowers, if you need to start from scratch, I would leave more than week 2/3 and maybe 4 to do it if possible so that you can have a revision period.

Every team is different so it really will just depend on how many/what type of people you have and what works for you.

[tomy]

Originally Posted by jaredhk

If when you say Chairman's you are just talking about the essay, I'm not sure what your preseason looks like but if possible, you may want to try and finish Chairman's prior to build season. If you are talking just about the presentation or video, I think that is fine to leave some of until the season.

Also, other awards...if you are talking about something like Woodie Flowers, if you need to start from scratch, I would leave more than week 2/3 and maybe 4 to do it if possible so that you can have a revision period.

Every team is different so it really will just depend on how many/what type of people you have and what works for you.

Thanks for the feedback. We are starting the Chairman's award soon. We have done it in the past. I should have been more specific on that one. I was referring to the video and the presentation.

We usually have a group of kids that have nothing to do so this year I was thinking we get them started on other awards like Woodie Flowers. This is something to keep kids busy as well as get a good idea of what the award involves.

[snoman]

Again if pre season is a option the first bullet and probably the second bullet week 1 electrical and all of week 1 programming can be done prior to kickoff for the most part

[tomy]

Originally Posted by snoman

Again if pre season is a option the first bullet and probably the second bullet week 1 electrical and all of week 1 programming can be done prior to kickoff for the most part

Sadly we don't do much for preseason. The lead mentor doesn't like to do anything outside of the build season. Unfortunately we don't have other mentors to step up to do this since we have 5 FTC teams as well.

[snoman]

Wow 5 ftc. How big is your school?

[tomy]

Each graduating class is around 2,000 students average. We have 8-9 kids per team. I help with all 5 so I keep my self very busy pre-season.

[jaredhk]

How big is the FRC team?

[tomy]

FRC team starts with around 25-30 students but there is drop out as with all high school programs. We usually end with 20-25 at the end of the season.

[snoman]

In that case I would say it looks reasonable. Week 6 should include week 0 event. Also drive team category even if it is a old robot. A good driver is key to success

[Greg Hainsworth]

I would suggest you have the Chairman's team start work in September when school begins and have it finished before kickoff. You have a lot on the plates of the mechanical team in week 1. I recommend assigning other people (possibly freeing up some of the award submitters) to building field elements and do that during the first weeks of build season while the other members study the game and rules. Or if the award members are not mechanically inclined, have them do the book work while the mechanical team does the hands on building of field elements. Then the award members explain the game rules to the rest of the team.

We found this year it was helpful for the team to see the field elements in person when they were brainstorming the drive system and strategizing which points to score.

I can sympathize with your lead mentor not wanting to be involved outside of build season. The reality is FRC is a 12 month commitment and prep for FRC build season starts in September (which coincides with the kickoff for FTC unfortunately). You may want to look at your senior members to take over lead roles on the awards and work independantly while providing updates to the lead mentor weekly or bi-weekly. The submission period opens in November. Imagine the pressure you could relieve during build season it that work was done before kickoff. It would be like adding 3 members to your roster for build season.

Hope this is helpful. Good Luck.

[jgerstein]

Originally Posted by tomy

Sadly we don't do much for preseason. The lead mentor doesn't like to do anything outside of the build season. Unfortunately we don't have other mentors to step up to do this since we have 5 FTC teams as well.

I recognize that I don't know all the details of your team's situation and that it's a bit late for this year, but it seems like students on your team could work on some of these tasks on their own time during the preseason.

Do you have established systems for team communication? We meet throughout the year, but even so, my students do a lot of work outside our meeting times, largely because we only meet about 4 hours a week during the offseason, and 9-12 hours a week during build season. Could your programming team look up how to install C++ now and do it before the season starts? Maybe go through some tutorials over break? Award info is already posted - maybe marketing team could look over it now so they're not rushing.

[Thayer McCollum]

Originally Posted by tomy

This year one of our teams mentors is backing to spend more time with his family. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to write up a schedule for the build season. Looking for feedback on what I have so far.

Week 1

Programming:
Look up how to install C++
Look up basic programming tutorials
Install Microsoft visual studio
Cplusplus tutorials

Week 2

Programming:
Cplusplus tutorials
Data types
Functions
Visual Studio examples
Start looking into really programming on the test bed

I'm not going to lie. These first two weeks of programming scare me. I read the other posts and I can understand that you don't have much preseason time, but it seems like you're moving from a different language to C++ this year (since you have to install it). But even if you aren't switching to C++ it seems like you are intending to train your programmers in the first two weeks of the season which seems like a bad idea to me. I don't know all the circumstances of your team but it seems like it could be very easy for your programming to go very wrong.

[Monochron]

I'll offer the general comment that you should allocate more time for most things that you have on there. For instance you only 1 week of actual robot programming. Often programming projects work by programming small chunks at a time, testing them, and them moving on. Other times people try to write a bunch of code up front and then do a bunch of testing afterword (not what I recommend). But either way there will be a ton of code writing all throughout the process. Considering that you are teaching students week 1, I might allocate 3 or 4 weeks to programming on the actual robot.

[MamaSpoldi]

Originally Posted by Thayer McCollum

I'm not going to lie. These first two weeks of programming scare me. I read the other posts and I can understand that you don't have much preseason time, but it seems like you're moving from a different language to C++ this year (since you have to install it). But even if you aren't switching to C++ it seems like you are intending to train your programmers in the first two weeks of the season which seems like a bad idea to me. I don't know all the circumstances of your team but it seems like it could be very easy for your programming to go very wrong.

Originally Posted by Monochron

I'll offer the general comment that you should allocate more time for most things that you have on there. For instance you only 1 week of actual robot programming. Often programming projects work by programming small chunks at a time, testing them, and them moving on. Other times people try to write a bunch of code up front and then do a bunch of testing afterword (not what I recommend). But either way there will be a ton of code writing all throughout the process. Considering that you are teaching students week 1, I might allocate 3 or 4 weeks to programming on the actual robot.

I most definitely agree with both of these comments. Although you will definitely have to do some installation and updating of your programming tools after kickoff and that should be completed in week 1, the C++ training and learning to code really needs to be done off-season. It is unrealistic to think that you can learn to code and write all the code needed for your robot in the 6-week build season. This is especially true when you have inexperienced programmers. They will need time to test their code and figure out what the problems are... and then fix them. Writing our robot code is a process that we engage in for the entire build season... although we sometimes have to scrap code that has been written (but probably not tested) due to changes in the robot as it is being designed and built we consider that just an opportunity to get more experience. Testing is critical and then using the pieces already created to form the autonomous mode(s) will provide a lot more reliability and maintainability of your software. Good luck!