Who is using the kitbot?

[Ellery]

Our team is using as much of it as possible... Mainly due to ease of construction, cost, and ease of maintenance. Unless your team has alot of resources to make a really light, robust, frame via Tig welding this is a step up from standard extrusions but yes you'll give a little in some durability since it isn't as beefy as standard extrusions.

Anyways most stuff we've built in the past is overkill in design.

With the changing tides of a smaller team and less $ and resources since we are sponsoring 3 teams this year on a 2 team budget and sponsoring the Finger Lakes Regional we'll take the more efficient path.

Believe me these kits have evolved so much, at least from all 14 years of this program you wouldn't believe how much freedom we have now compared to 10 years ago. I remembered we couldn't spend more than $425 outside the Kit at one time.

Happy Bot Building y'all. And I hope to chat with all the teams who are coming to the Finger Lakes Regional.


Ellery

[Rick]

We will be using the "kit bot" with some mods. First of all wheel chair wheels are soooooo 2002. We will slamming our bot to a 1/4 off the ground and using some Colson Specials. Check out the episodes of American Robot starting January 19 for the real scoop.

[Anchi]

we are using the gearbox only, we are making ours out of 1" aluminum and welding it. as to the guy who used extruded Al, why? why not just weld Al to make a frame?

we are making ours modular so we need the flexibility of our own chassis.

[JulieB]

were not it look like it will snap in half any sec.

[[527]phil]

I personally don't like the kitbot because FIRST has turned the kit of parts into an over sized erector set, i especially don't like the fact that it's pre-drilled, i would rather use the frame to make a small robot that we can mount a chair on and ride it around the competition

[Twstdkittie]

Originally Posted by [527]phil

I personally don't like the kitbot because FIRST has turned the kit of parts into an over sized erector set, i especially don't like the fact that it's pre-drilled, i would rather use the frame to make a small robot that we can mount a chair on and ride it around the competition

Weeeeee!!!! I wanna ride around on a robot!!!

[Chriszuma]

what is American Robot? is that some new show on discovery channel or something? if so, i think the American * theme is getting kinda old.

[Aignam]

Originally Posted by Chriszuma

what is American Robot? is that some new show on discovery channel or something? if so, i think the American * theme is getting kinda old.

It's a series of short movies that Team 121 will be realeasing throughout build season, documenting their team's efforts.

[Paul Copioli]

For those of you that think the kit chassis is too weak, read this post!

When John and his boss at IFI showed me initial pictures of the frame; I said, "that geometry looks weak." They didn't argue with me and they just sent me a kit to put together. I designed and built a prototype gearbox to mate with the frame (machined from solid ... lots of fun!). I loaded it up with a total of 130 lbs. and drove the heck out of it. I bashed it into everything. I hit walls at full speed, the center structure from last year at full speed. I even built a ramp to jump it over. I was trying to give it as much shock loading as I could. I drove it in the 4 wheel drive configuration (I think you should use it in the 4 WD configuration). The frame never bent, it never buckled. It held up to everything I could throw at it.

FIRST still thought it looked too weak, so I sent it to them to try to break. Nothing, nada, no failure at all. They could not break it, bend it, dent it. The frame is made from 1/8" 5052-H32 half hard aluminum. It is tough stuff. Those of you that say it is too weak, just do not know what you are talking about.

-Paul

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

It held up to everything I could throw at it.
-Paul

There is a cute video of Paul's young son crashing it into a wall...
Destructive testing at the hands of a child...

[n0cturnalxb]

Originally Posted by JVN

There is a cute video of Paul's young son crashing it into a wall...
Destructive testing at the hands of a child...

Ohh.. upload and post, we (or, at least, I!) want to see!

--------

I think 1159's going to be using the entire kit, unless there's a major change in design or something. We'll see in one or two weeks for sure

[Alaina]

Team 814 is in the middle of some financial issues, so we're using all that we can out of the kit. I very much appreciate the awesome kit we got this year.

I personally don't like the wheels too much. They seem a little bit too slippery. But I think we can make them work.

[MikeDubreuil]

We're actually working on two robots. One specially designed for the game and another make out of the kit bot. The kit bot robot will be a practice robot for software and student driving. It will also be almost entirely high school built.

We found the kit bot to be of very high quality. The frame is solid as a rock and seems like it could be used to make a Battle-bot. The drive train seems very nice, we especially like how easy the assembly was.

Even for a 8 year veteran team we had serious debates about whether to use the materials in the kit bot. The kit bot really levels the playing field between rookies and veterans.

Is FIRST making it too easy?
I would say the answer is yes they are making it easier than years past. But I would also say that does that matter? If students are still inspired to pursue more advanced designs and eventually a career in the technology sector we still have met our ultimate goal.

[ngreen]

I think more than making it easy, it makes it hard for veteran teams. This drive and chassis can compete with what many of the veteran teams have been using and allows the rookies to focus more attention to more difficult task such as tetra manipulation.

Looking at my team personally, we are a third year team that has done well the last two using a student tig welded frame and a chain drive with the drill motors. We don't have resources or experience on drives more than that right now and this year you can put together a comparable frame in several hours what has taken us around a week the last two years.

So I don't think FIRST has made it too easy. There will be several veteran teams use this drive because it is just as good as what they've been using. But meanwhile rookie teams will be able to spend less time getting their robot to move. I think in the end this move will make more of the veteran teams to make a greater focus in more advance drive systems, better manipulator design, and programming in order to gain back that advantage lost. I really hope this brings the end to the rookie one drive wheel robots!

[supersy77]

I dont know about you guys but the kitbot is bangin. It handles nice and has plenty of power, and is light. The only thing is it needs 4wd, and phnumatic tires in back. Other than that the only trouble ive had is the transmissions have been grindin a little but i greased them and they are getting better.