Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?

[663.keith]

I think that we finally perfected our robot the day after the off-season competition bash at the beach

[Damian Manda]

What's this about 5:00am on the ship date? Its not over until the truck comes to pick it up - more like 4-5pm on the ship date!

Actually, were usually not done until the second or last day of nationals - at least for the last two years I have participated in FIRST.

[slickguy2007]

Suprisingly enough... our robot was finished 3 weeks into the the season and another 1 week was used to figure out all of the problems and fix them. We used the rest of the time to do driver practice as well as strategy work....


GO 1403!!!

[KimT]

Originally Posted by slickguy2007

Suprisingly enough... our robot was finished 3 weeks into the the season and another 1 week was used to figure out all of the problems and fix them. We used the rest of the time to do driver practice as well as strategy work....


GO 1403!!!

What's your secret? We always have "strict" deadlines, and we work as hard as we can to meet them, but if the robot is driving at midnight the day before shipping, we feel lucky. Somehow we always seem to fall behind. Does your team have any kind of an organizational structure? Timelines? Do you pick simple, solid designs? Is it lucky team dynamics? Honestly though, if you have any advice, our team could use it. Thanks!

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by slickguy2007

Suprisingly enough... our robot was finished 3 weeks into the the season and another 1 week was used to figure out all of the problems and fix them. We used the rest of the time to do driver practice as well as strategy work....


GO 1403!!!

I would feel disappointed to finish that early. Finishing at week 3 or 4 would be like you did not challenge yourself enough. driver practice and strategy work is definitely a good thing, but you may have been able to do more with your machine.

[Bharat Nain]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I would feel disappointed to finish that early. Finishing at week 3 or 4 would be like you did not challenge yourself enough. driver practice and strategy work is definitely a good thing, but you may have been able to do more with your machine.

Their robot was mostly built out of wood, and it was made extremely simple. I can see how they finished it that early. They sure had an excellent rookie year.

[Joshua May]

Finish... what an interesting concept. I'm still hoping to do that to our 2003 bot.

I selected week 5 because I think my team might be able to do that this year, we'll just have to be a bit more organized. Although I don't think a robot is ever really finished per se, there's always room for improvement.

[fred]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I would feel disappointed to finish that early. Finishing at week 3 or 4 would be like you did not challenge yourself enough. driver practice and strategy work is definitely a good thing, but you may have been able to do more with your machine.

I sort of disagree there. I feel that getting the basic robot done as soon as possible is very important. The earlier you finish, the more comfortable your drivers can get with the robot and you can also tweak it a little. Last year for us, the programmers didn't really get the robot until Chesapeake and our drivers didn't get to drive a fully functioning machine until Drexel really. I feel that this really hurt our performance on the field.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I would feel disappointed to finish that early. Finishing at week 3 or 4 would be like you did not challenge yourself enough. driver practice and strategy work is definitely a good thing, but you may have been able to do more with your machine.

I firmly believe that an elite level FIRST robot can be completed in 4 weeks. I don't think the fact that a team finished within that timeline is the indicator of a team who hasn't challenged themselves. I think it's a better indicator of the following two things.

- A well oiled "machine" -- To finish a robot that quickly requires a lot of subteams working independently, followed by these teams seamlessly integrating their work.
- A firm understanding of the importance of driver training. -- There's no better way to gain a leg up on the competition than by having well practiced drivers. Especially during the first few weeks of the regional season, practiced drivers with an adequate robot tend to beat unpracticed drivers with a superior robot.

This is why I recommend that all teams try and finish their robot within a four week time frame. It encourages team work, and puts you a team in position where they've maximized their chance of winning.

I've detailed a lot of these thoughts in a workshop that I gave to local teams in Ontario. It can be found on this page. It's in the "Running A Team" presentation.

[Peter Matteson]

Theory 1:
We finish at the end of week four and have a week to debug and practice driving.

Theory 2:
We get a rolling chassis together around 6am the day of the UTC Scrimmage Saturday before shipping and debug between then and the ship date.

Theory 3:
We discovery we are either way overweight or aren't playing the game right at the scrimmage and do a panic redesign in the last 48-96 hours.

This is a good case for plan for the best prepare for the worst. I have not had a competition Thursday at which I didn't have a panic of figuring out how to fix what broke so i go in with that mindset. I would like to have a clam practice day this year but I doubt its in the cards.

Remember when you say a good robot is never finished one fundamental rule for engineers:
"Better is the worst enemy of good enough."
Sometimes you just have to move on even though you know you didn't have the optimal solution.

Pete

[Revolverx7]

My team is shooting for sometime late Sunday. No we will be still putting the final touches on as it goes into the box. Thats how it all ways is and will continue to be. It makes for an interesting last week.

[Bcahn836]

Well I though this year was going to be different and we were going to be done early, well i guessed wrong. Today our meeting starts at 9:am and ends when the robot and tools are in their crates. I think it will be a long long long long day.And I have a feeling the pizza place will have to make a few deliveries, and the gas station across the street will be busy throughout the day

[Ryan M.]

Robot's done, human controlled controls are completely debugged and working (right... ), and autonomous scripting is working. I'm going in today to fine tune autonomous and fix any "programming problems," such as motor failure, which occure while the drivers are practicing, but other than that...

Yeah! Last day and we're done!

[GrammarNazi]

we finished earlier tonight but we still need to let the drivers practice.

[Uberbots]

wow this topic is nearly 3 years old...

our robot is done, we just have to build the twin final versions.