Changes of robots in the off-season...

[Brandon Holley]

Well the time of "unofficial" FIRST comps has arrived (off season). Our team (11) has just come back from a wonderful experience at PARC. We had an incredible time, but our robot didnt. During a match our robot went "suicidal" in auto mode. Our pistons (able to lift 200 lbs.) shot into our robot, and umm to say the least broke our entire hanging mechanism. Sooo, i was wondering, given the sad shape of our arm, and the amount of time it would take to fix it, could building a new arm be acceptable? Of course it wont be as complex as our first, but it would still be functional...Feel free to voice your opinion!

[suneel112]

Sure, its okay.

Our team tried to enter two robots at IRI last year, building the second one during the summer (actually, it was a modified version of the 2002 robot, which we didn't like much, so we decided to make it a stack destroyer). Although we failed, it is perfectly okay to modify the robot during the summer for off-season.

This year, I hope to build one during the summer. The second place idea
(my idea ) during the design process was to have a robot with two huge arms and an attaching mechanism at the top. The arm could not only cap big balls, but could also store them between the arms. It could store one while capping another, or even while hanging. It would also have a radial lift mechanism that would attach to the bar and use the strength of the arms to raise it to the platform and hang autonomously. Its arms would curl, and then hook it up to the attaching mechanism. The attaching mechanism would be on a turntable, and would have a wheel to move around on the bar at the top. At the top, it could prevent robots from hanging, block enemy goals, cap its goal, or transfer balls from one goal to the other. Although I doubt it will get approved, and doubt even more that it will get finished before June 18, it is a pretty cool idea nonetheless.

Anyways back to your question, yes, you should definitely improve the robot this summer, if you are able to do so.

[Sean Schuff]

I agree. Modifying your robot into the off-season is a good exercise in adapting your game strategy in light of the completed competitions. I would even go so far as to be in favor of team's building a robot from scratch to compete at an off-season event. If they want to put that much effort into building a newer, stronger, faster robot, more power to them! Our team will probably be making some modifications to ours and will hopefully use IRI as a testing ground for some ideas for 2005.

One clarification to all of this - it is important that the rules for modification be consistent for each team at an off-season event. It would be ideal for the entire off-season FIRST community to decide on rules for modification so there is some consistency for those teams who travel to more than one event. A level playing field is ALWAYS a good thing.

All in all, making changes to improve your bot (or just get it functional again - 200 pounds of force - OUCH!) is, in my opinion, a good idea! Good luck with that robot!

Sean

[Bharat Nain]

Sure its fine to build a new hanging mechanism. Also, try to learn from your mistakes in the past(if any), and make a better hanging mechanism. Get creative...

[Ryan Foley]

a good number of teams modify or change their bot during off-season. For 1, its fun for those who enjoy building. 2) its great training for the less experienced builders, or new members, and everyone in general. 3) it gets the team together more, so more team bonding goes on.

Modifying robots for off-season events is fine, especially when you are doing it because your robot doesnt work.

we are changing our ball collector, mostly since it was mostly destroyed (we had fun today doing our own version of the Office Space scene where they destroy the fax machine in a field, just because it was such a pain, ad wasnt usable anyways).

[Bcahn836]

this allows all of those sacrificed parts due to weight be put back on the robot. Additionally research and development for next years game. And try out new programing.

[Alex Pelan]

The only change I think that we are making for battlecry is umm...making it work again. Many of you probably remember our galileo final matches, where in the first one our basket didn't work and the second one it malfunctioned, causing a ball to get caught on our drive train . Considering using this is a main part of our strategy, it is necessary to fix. I don't think we're going to try to venture into another arm situation, however, as our first one was not exactly helpful.

[Brandon Holley]

yeah we just had a meeting today at night. we will be attending the bridgewater (303) off season competition. our arm is pretty busted, and my design for a new arm is very good, a lot better, than the one we have now. its very simple as well, but we will be putting it on for all our comps after bridgewater (summer frenzy, duel, bash, ramp riot, ?battlecry?)...

[MOEmaniac]

In my opinion its ok because you see some teams build whole new robots for off season comps. And it gives teams a chance to test out other stratagies that they didn't try in the official comps.

[Ken Delaney]

Changing your robot to improve its performance is not a new idea. I have seen robots change their function in the pits during the FIRST competition season. In Stack Attack we discovered at our first regional event that the electronics were mounted to high causing us to fall on our backs. At the second regional we spent all day Thursday rewiring the entire robot, improving the performance of the robot.
During the summer we built a new robot to take to post season competitions. Before we embarked on this project we contacted all the organizers of the events to make sure this would be okay. We assured them that robot we meet all the 2003 robot requirements. We took a frame from the 2000 season and modified it with spare parts and made a much more competitive robot for the post season events. We used the process as a teaching tool by getting the newer team members more involved in the robot design/build process.
So go ahead and build your robot, as long as the robot meets all the 2004 robot rules.

[OZ_341]

The off-season is a tremendous opportunity to teach, learn, innovate and dream. In 2002 we built a mini-bot that made us a champion.

This season already we have redesigned our hook, relocated our battery, and replaced a joystick. These three small changes put us in the winner's circle at PARC VII.

The little things count!!! What a great lesson for the kids!

[Pat Roche]

As many of you saw at PARC 134 had wheelie bars on the robot. Those where one of the off-season renovations that we are making. We are currently in the process of designing a new 2x multiplier suction cup/arm system. Our team is also in constant development or new drivetrains.

Offseason competitions are the best way to learn and prototype with robots. Our drivetrain this year debuted at River Rage last year. There is no better way to conduct test than in teh actual environment it will work in.

Just some thoughts

-Pat