Kickoff Traditions

[sanddrag]

We meet at school at 6:30 AM and watch the broadcast. Then we print and read the manual ALL the way through. Then we make little fields on tables and have mock matches to determine all the scoring scenarios. Then I get back to school with the KOP. Then everyone stares anxiosly at the plastic crates while gobbling down their food because we are not allowed to open in until after lunch. Then we open it and I do a presentation of all the parts explaining to all the members what they are and so forth. The parts get passed around and then put away on shelves. Then everyone formulates some ideas about what kind of robot would be good to play the game and about what we can do with the kit parts. Then we break into four design groups and leave at 5 PM.

Sunday we meet at school at 1PM and get right to work in our design groups. Each of the four groups stay mostly separate. We make cardboard mockups and other simple prototypes. Leave at 5PM

For the next 3 days the four design groups work furiously 3Pm-9Pm each day to build inventor models and mockups to present their designs to the rest of the team. On Thursday they can finish up from 3PM until 6PM and then the presentations begin. Each group will get about 15 minutes to present their design in any manner they feel it appropriate as long as everyone can see it. When that is done, the members who were on the team last year all gather round to decide which of the four designs we should go with, or if we should combine components of some or all of the designs into one different design.
We stay as late as necessary to decide on a design.

Then the team breaks up into subsystems (drivetrain, chassis, electrical/programming/ arm, etc.) and goes to work on their own part. The chassis group is also responsible for integration and interference avoidance.

By the end of the second sunday we have a good amountof precision layouts, dimensions, and weight calculations for the final design.

I know that was a bit more than this thread asked for but I am "FIRST Frenzied" tonight.