Practice Robot?

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

This thread has some really great advice to make building the practice bot more manageable/efficient. I would give it a read if you guys are going to make a practice bot. As far as 842, we've been building a practice bot every year since 2010 with a team of 10-20 active students. It does vary from year to year but the team has made practice bots with a very lean team before.

[Classified*]

Last year was our first time building a second robot. We had about 15 students and we met 6 days a week (Monday-Saturday). We also met the last two Sundays of build season. We had adequate machinery: chop saw, band saw, drill press, and manual mills on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have to admit we over exerted ourselves by making two. We are still debating whether having two was better than spending more time on just one robot. One thing we might do this year is have the second bot only have the mechanisms essential for driver practice and auto. So, for example, last year we would have left out the hanger.

After bag day, though, it was totally awesome. We had lots of time to program and practice driving. The one mistake we did make though was we didn't make the control systems identical. We used victors on the practice bot and talon srxs on the comp bot. THIS WAS A HUGE MISTAKE!!!! We had to have two separate programs. All of the code made after bag day had to be transferred over to the comp bot's code before the competition. This caused endless headaches. Do yourself a favor. Make them identical...

[page2067]

We are no longer a small team (>50 students) but for many years were were <15 students working out of a mentors garage. Starting in 2009 and since we have always built some form of practice bot. Not all had all of the subsystems. I certainly agree with last post- if you can make them the same - different motor controllers mean a different code - which leads to issues (more work when you get to your first competition).

However if you can't build it all the same, there is still value in having a practice robot. At least it should result in having some autonomous program (I hate watching auto when robots just sit there!) and some feel for the driving and handling of the robot. If you have a second Roborio, at least put it on a drivable chassis.

Agree also you should have a plan for the build season - Some sort of Gantt chart (I like Excel for simplicity) at the start - that is updated as change happens (it will, let it change when it should, but keep a plan that gets you to the end you want). It keeps you focused on getting things done, making decisions when you need to, ordering parts on time, etc. Include the practice robot in the plan. We used to build the gamer, then cobble together a practice robot, we shifted to building the practice robot first, then incorporating lessons learned in the build of it for the gamer second. The practice robot will go to a week 0 event (FIRST please bring back real field elements to Suffield!) while much of the team is back refining the game robot.

Then after Bag day the team still has much to continue to do - programming, drive practice, and with-holding upgrades. (as the stop the bag day folks have pointed out - the 6 week build season is not reality for teams that build a practice robot)

[s-neff]

We build one, with identical components to comp bot. Roughly 8 veteran students & equal number of involved rookies last year, 3 highly dedicated mentors. It's expensive to buy a second control system, motors, and wheels, but as long as you're disciplined in making drawings for manufacturing (CAD or pencil...) it's not hard to knock out 2x the custom parts for everything else.

Now that we have "last year's practice bot", we can loot it for a control system and most of the drivetrain for "this year's practice bot".

For our (lack of..) schedule last year it was critical to have the second bot for programming & final adjustments.

[DonRotolo]

Teams that build 2 robots have a distinct advantage in competition.

Ask yourself this: Let's say you were given a complete set of detailed plans for your robot on Day 1. That is, all the dimensions, layouts and mechanisms are fully tested and worked out, all materials are on hand, you just have to fabricate the items and assemble them. How long would that take?

Let's say a week, just for discussion.

OK then: Build and optimize your robot in 5 weeks, then build a second identical* one - for the competition - in the remaining week. Easy-peasy.

Use the "prototype" robot for driver practice, programming, and so on, while your competition bot sits in its bag, all happy and clean. This is how you win competitions.

==========
What keeps every team from doing this?
1. Budget. Many teams can't afford 2 of everything.
2. Time: Many teams barely finish robot #1 in 6 weeks.
3. People: Some teams struggle finding people who can make and build.

All are solvable problems, IF the team wants to solve them.

*Minus any imperfections, of course!