Dilema...

[DKolberg]

Last year was our first year and we had no experience except for one coach. We used the kit of parts and had some aluminum donated to us. We built a competitive robot and had a lot of fun along the way. You do not have to build a transmission your first year, many teams are very competitive using the transmission built into the drill motors only. Do not let the technology talked about in this forum scare you off, many of these people are veterans of many years and with teams that have worked on designs over those years. There was a Discovery channel show on FIRST and last year one of the rookie teams lost there robot in shipping and went ahead and built a simple robot in one day that was very competitive. This competition is more than just winning, it is about the journey. There are teams that are very well funded, there are teams that students design and build everything without technical expert help, there are teams that watch their robot get built by professionals, but this has not been the deciding factor in who wins. The professional built machines do not dominate this competition and that is good. Start with something simple and build up the team to add more sophistication as you go. The strategy for winning is not always to dominate the field, the winning alliance is made up of one team that dominated the floor and usually two other teams that are selected by the dominating team.

Good luck and hope you join FIRST,

Dave Kolberg