The Chassis Project.

[Madison]

I've been asked to recommend or design a chassis that will be used by a new FIRST team. While I understand that FIRST made a great step forward in providing such a chassis in last season's kit of parts, and that they will, presumably, be including it again this season, I think we can all agree that there is certainly room for improvement. For teams without access to engineering support, materials, or machinery, it's an excellent solution. For teams without access to engineering support, but without other restriction there is freelanceFIRST and me.

So, I'm starting this thread as something of a survey. With the experience you each have now, what features would you like to have seen in a ready-made chassis design?

To start, I'll list some of my concerns and criteria.

• The chassis should be light. What is an acceptable chassis weight?
• The chassis should be able to hold its own in a pushing match. Traditionally, four-wheel drive is the easiest way to attain reasonably tractive effort.
• The chassis should be able to turn. Castors make turning easy but offer less precise control and less traction, potentially.
• There should be ample room for attachments. Arms, baskets, booms and other devices should have easy mounting points. Electronics, battery, and wiring should have adequate space, be insulated, and be neat.
• Parts should be common and easily cut or machined with basic tools. Repairing damage should be easy because of common parts, logical assembly, and similar accessibility.
• The chassis needs to be stylin' . I don't do ugly.

So, what would you add or take away as a consideration? What would you change.

I'm looking for as much feedback as possible with the hope that I can develop an adequate concept that could be used as is or adapted by teams to suit their needs.

Thanks.