What to do with old robots?

[the_undefined]

I think old robot's are great for autonmous programing. Our team didn't have any "old" bot's since we were rookies and you guys have just no idea how often I was thinking: "Oh I wish I could test that code on a real bot". I finally ended up putting 20 hours of work into a program that simulates parts of a robot (wheels, buttons, gyroscope, etc.) to compensate for that (and to have a nice monitoring program) but I think I will definitly test some more things with this years bot. I want to play with the camera and also see what kind of sensors we can put on and stuff like that : ) ...

[Vin211]

You know those birthday cards or greeting cards that are the size of a small dog? Yeah perhaps a robot can be used as a paper weight. That's what I would use mine for.

Anywho, I have seen some teams use them as practicing devices for the next season. Just something that a team can use to experience what it would possibly be like to go against another machine during build/tinker season.

[danield710]

we usually save the bot from the year before to practice with and give demonstrations at school with, but with the older robots we usually tear them apart and take what parts we can and we usually keep the frames

[sebas2mil]

well last years robot that we used to grab the multiplier ball was in one week take apart the arm and an end efector was put on and was grabbing tetras of the ground

the freshmen were pretty good

sebas

[Barry Bonzack]

I'm glad to see this thread back. this year I was a rookie again, and had no previous bot to work with. team 233 brought their 2004 bot to my school last December and ran it around to help us recruit new members. any old bot that still runs makes a good promo bot.

I hear my old 2004 bot on 1390... parts from it had to be taken out to be used on their 2005 bot. They broke their IFI and are now using the 2004 one to demo their 2005 bot. although it has never ran before, I hope to get the 2004 robot at the very least into a condition where it can go in a display case, however I have bigger plans for it in the future. I will be mentoring next year ::grins::

Stay tuned.

[the_short1]

i mentioned to our team mentors taht we should leave our ROOKIE years bots (we made two < one practice) intact 100% so we can have that for our achive.. but after that use them for practice..

it kinda helped having two 2002 canadian first robotics robots at korah to practice driving etc b4 the kickoff started.

[Andrew Y.]

they sit at school, go to outreach events, demo events, and promotional events, also drive them arounbd school when we borred

[unapiedra]

My team nearly killed me for suggesting to sell the robot.

Make an auction, and invite some media, your sponsors, and such.

Some one try this. I believe that you can make at least $5,000 with it (Maybe even more), but I can't put it up to a test. So someone else do it.

[mtaman02]

Originally Posted by Bcahn836

What does your team do with the old robots? My team has been participating in FIRST for three years now, and we are running out of space in the shop. What does your team do with the old robots?

My Old HS (McKee HS) well thankfully they have a big area just dedicated to the robotics team / class - so all their robots are still active but retired and in one piece and they all do all sorts of sponsorship type demos and orientations and what not - there was only one instance but do not quote me in which they had to take one of thier pride and joys apart for schematics for a part. Thus far though each of their girls are still in one piece and most if not all their innerds are in still prime working condition with a few exceptions - (motors - pneumatics etc - the stuff that can barely be replaced with the more modern KOP that have been recently given out)

As long as you have the space you can still keep them in one piece, previous years robots come in handy for training the rookie kids on how to drive different robots (both dimensions and programming) and even if you don't have the space you should really fight to get more space for the team, a team could start out as small as a rookie team and end up as big as Chief Delphi - Moe or TJ2 within just a few months espicially if you merge with another school or something.

[AJL930]

Our First robot was in several pieces before last season even began, during the build we ripped those pieces apart for the robot. Our second robot from two seasons ago is still in operating condition, we use that one for demonstrations at schools and companies. Last years robots frame is still intact but all the motors and electronics have been taken out. The owner of the shop were we built the robot wants to hang it on his wall of his office. I dont know what will happen to this years robot, I guess we will have to wait until next season to find out.