Basic Robot Layout

[Taylor]

Originally Posted by gsorozco

As a new member, I am looking for a basic robot layout that has all of the major components physically laid out. For example if a robot is 3 "stories" tall what goes in each floor. I am not looking for someone to do my design work - just a starting point which can be "cobbled together" then modified for specific design traits. Picture galleries are nice but the pictures are too small and its difficult to see all of the components.

Especially with what promises to be a physical game this year, it may be wiser to think more in terms of front-to-back or left-to-right rather than top-to-bottom. As was previously mentioned, keeping the motors, controls, and operating systems close, low, and protected, will be critical. Low center of gravity is paramount to keep your robot from tipping. So everything that is important (read "expensive" or "heavy") would go in the first floor, with some sort of energy relay - belts, chains, pulleys, as needed - going to the apparati (plural of apparatus?) above.
With this in mind, the Reader's Digest condensed version of our bot (yes, we're a 2nd year team with limited resources but I think the boilerplate will be pretty popular) is the following: the front of the robot gathers the balls, middle shoots for the ctr goal, and rear scores in the corners. Keys to the game we've found: speed, mobility, robustness, simplicity.