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Unread 19-10-2005, 01:23
sciguy125 sciguy125 is offline
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Re: Should teams be pushed to make higher quality robots?

I'm going to say that I partially agree with Sanddrag on this whole thing. By that, I mean that I think it would be a good thing, but I don't think that it can be implemented/enforced.

I would love to see more professional looking robots. I would especially like to see it on my own team. 1351 has been trying to take measures to outlaw "ghetto fab" (that's what everyone calls it, but I don't remember what our official documents call it). We've had problems with people just trying to cobble things together with a near complete disregard for quality. When people look at the robot in this condition, it makes the team look bad.

As I said, my team has been trying to make rules to improve quality. One of the proposed rules was to force everything to be CADed. Another (thus far, unwritten rule) is to make sure that nobody uses tools if they have not been properly trained to do so. Aside from safety, it also ensures that they are using the tools properly to do high quality work.

While these specific rules probably couldn't be instated FIRST-wide, I don't think it would be a good idea to create many quality control rules. Many such rules would depend on a team's resources. Have you ever tried to make a straight, clean cut with a hack saw? It's pretty hard. It's not practical for my team to have everything done at the machine shop. We make drawings and send them out. For a 6 week build period, this process has a relatively long turn around time. If parts come back and need to be modified, it's not practical to send out the new design. It's also a waste of time to send out for small brackets that can be cut with a saw or a dremel. These parts obviously won't look as nice.

There is also an issue of skill level. We are a student-run team. Mentors are only supposed to step in when asked to help or to avoid serious problems (bodily harm, damage to equipment, decisions that will lead to total failure...). When unsolicited, small suggestions or hints are alright, however. "Do you really need that collar?" is alright, but "Maybe you should use this bushing here and move the collar there, then add a spacer here" is pushing it. There are some students that don't seem to like help. They get a little perturbed when suggestions are given to them. Sometimes, they'll ignore the information even though they know it'll help them. They tend to get the job done, but it's usually not as good as it could have been.

Then, there's also people that just don't learn. I'm sure you know kids that will keep taking the candy no matter how many times you smack them. I've lost count of the number of times that things have been or were going to be damaged because people don't use limit switches. I'm starting to get tired of correcting them all the time, but not doing so is expensive (in more ways than one). Granted, most of them are newbies, but they usually have veterans working with them that should know better. Some seem to have taken the "measure once, cut twice" philosophy. However, this usually becomes measure once, cut twice, measure again, then cut a few more times. I've seen the same types of problems come up over and over again, but people just don't seem to learn from them.

Our workmanship seems to have a trend. As time approaches the end of the deadline, quality approaches zero. It's not that people aren't trying, it's just that quality has to be sacrificed to work faster. When 10 people are trying to get on the robot at once, you have to get in and out as fast as possible. Having a shoddy robot that might be cleaned up later is better than having a nice looking robot that's still being worked on in the field before your 4th match. Yes, the poor quality makes us look bad, but unless it's a MOPE (Monstrosity Of Poor Engineering), we shouldn't sacrifice all prior work on the project because of the last few days.

To sum all this up, I agree that professional quality work would be great. However, it might not be practical for everyone. There can't be a FIRST-wide quality standard. Possibly guidelines, but not much more than that. I feel, however, that each individual team should set their own quality standards. These standards, of course, will vary from team to team. If you're working with a $5 cordless drill, a hack saw, and someone's foot for a vice, you obviously won't have the same standards as the team with the in-house CNC, water jet, and welders. If you're the team with the $5 drill, it's measure twice, cut once; not the other way around. If you've got a CNC, you probably don't want people trying to eyeball things then making a cut with a hack saw. As long as you're doing the best with what you have, you're doing just fine.
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