Calendar of Important Deadlines - 2004 Season

[mtaman02]

Ok I think I got a question that know one has asked on CD before. Im sure all Teams and some rookie teams know about the calendar of important deadlines or what i come to call or know it as a guideline for teams.

I know that many teams including the team i participated with for 3 yrs. have taken a look at these deadlines many times. but which teams out there go by them. And does it help to remind you where your suppose to be and where your currently at.

The main question is this:
Does Your Team use the Calendar of deadlines?
Do You think it helps your team that FIRST provides a Timeline or layout to help let you know where your robot should be at by a certain time (both building and shipping wise)?

I might poll this thread later on!!!

[Ricky Q.]

We usually set our own deadlines as the season begins, and then watch them whiz by, But hey, they are meant to be broken

[MichalSkiba]

We have absolute deadlines. 1 week for design. 4 for construction. 1 for testing. If we can't design our robot in 1 week, its too complex and we won't be able to build it. When the deadline approaches we finish all work [no exceptions] and move onto the next task. Its a solid plan that has pulled us through the last 5 years.

A note about design, this year we're changing the rules around. Nothing can be proposed unless it is drawn to scale in CAD or on graph paper beforehand. If approved, its demensions can be modified and construction can begin immediatley.

[kevin.li.rit]

I would think that it would help the rookie teams only. More experienced teams will probably set their own deadlines. We won't be using a calender insted I give a limited amount of time for a task to be completed.

[mtaman02]

Ok so January 10th has come and gone and build season right now is ending its 2nd week. By now Teams should have a design for a chassis or Drive train. So without asking for too much info on ure design. I would much rather ask about your progress.

Do you think you are a head of schedule or behind schedule with Design and Building? And for teams who are participating with the Web Competitions or 3d Animations do you find it hard to juggle robot ideas and other ideas for the Web and Animation competitions

[gsensel]

I know in my experience with the animation competition with the exception or a robot design the overall progress of one does not affect the other. THis was all due to we had a group specifically devoted to our animation that didn't do a lot on the robot.

[JAH]

Team 234, this year, has made a complete schedule for each day of the build. So far we are sticking to our deadlines pretty well and are getting ahead in a few aspects. We're having our whole robot done in Inventor prior to any manufacturing, but possibly some risk realeased drawings(meaning the final design isn't done, but to go ahead and start building)will be released. Our scheduling system seems to be a good idea for our team, if it works. We made sure to add in a buffer period(AKA practice time if need be). Tonight we are hoping to have most of the Inventor work done for where we are working on right now and the team might get some sort of incentive for it. I might be able to post our whole schedule later on. Something else that Cyber Blue is doing this year can be viewed here. It is a large part of our scheduling also.

[David Kelly]

Cyber Blue 234's schedule can be downloaded here. It was created by our project manager, Chris Fultz using Microsoft Project.