Every fall, our team (677) tries to do a mini-build project to introduce/refresh everyone with our design and build process. Before the 2004 season we designed and built a new robot crate ("Super Crate II"). The goals were "simple":
- Lightweight
- Inexpensive
- Able to maximize our pit space.
It was also a conscious decision to undersize the crate a bit (44" x 44" footprint) in hopes of having it be placed "nicely" (instead of it having to be jammed in) among the other crates at the (assumedly, the 48"x 48" grid that was) the drayage facility. We hoped this would do this instead of thicker, heavier materials. Last year, it worked.
We ended up with a wooden crate (< $175) where the paired walls (two walls connected by a piano hinge) detached from the base and top and got set up in back corners of our pit, giving plenty of room for our robot, table (provided at comp site) and people to work on the robot.
The walls then held common fasteners, hand tools, and a dry erase board, via some peg board and a closet door shoe rack ($12 @ lowes- like this
http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=prod...158-604613CPDQ but canvas)
It wasn't planned for but the base turned into a stock rack/battery holder.
We shipped all are batteries (5) and robot, but none of our tools, and came in under the limit.
I don't have any pictures of it in use at competition (VCU 2004), we all were too busy getting sick and trying to get our robot to run... As we wind up for this coming season, I will try to post some pictures if anyone is interested.
-Bill Cloyes
677 Team Lead
OSU FIRST Robotics senior member
Moral of the story: Crashes happen, things break... SHIFT HAPPENS. - Qbranch [more] 
22-11-2004, 11:50
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