Reusing Parts

[KenWittlief]

maybe we can answer the question by saying what you cant do.

You cant use any parts that were machined or fabricated BEFORE the kickoff of this years competition.

So you cant reuse the subsystems you designed last year unless you build new copies this year. You can reuse any parts that you bought off the shelf at any time (a gear is a gear)

but you cant use anything that was modified, machined, drilled, soldered, assembled...

and dont forget, that includes your operator interface, controls, sensors, customs inputs.

You can re-use designs from previous years, but you have to build/fabricate all custom parts after the kickoff and before you ship the bot.

One thing I would strongly recommend. During the first week after the kickoff, forget about everything your team did or built in the past - think about WHAT your robot needs to do to compete effectively in THIS years events

we dont know what the game will be this year - you may of had the best drivetrain in the world for last years competition, and it might be the worst possible thing you could use this year.

One of the keys of engineering is to carefully analize the problem you are trying to solve, then think of the best way to solve that problem. Each year the problem that has to be solved is how to play the game.

And each year, the fundemental problem is changed - on purpose, so the teams will need to go through the entire engineering design cycle.