Rookie member here!

[keen101]

my biggest advice is to keep things simple (KISS).

when designing you robot expect that things will break. It is much easier to fix/replace things if it was designed to be simple (or have simple parts) in the first place.

when designing our robot we use a chalkboard heavily. We write down all possible strategies, and then write down which combination will give us the most points, while still being simple [to fix]. We then write down what features we want and vote on each system. It usually turns out okay, as long as we really do stick with the KISS method. There have been a couple things that came out pretty neat, but were actually time consuming to fix/replace, and therefore really hurt us in the long run because we forgot about KISS.

[notaPINKtruck]

I agree with everything said above.

However, I think the best thing you can do to guarantee a good rookie season is to find a veteran team to mentor you. Preferably it should be in your area, but short of that there are hundreds of teams ready and willing to help out rookie students and mentors.

Edit: It just occurred to me that, for their first robot, we always tell rookies to focus on a great drivetrain so they will be valuable to their alliance. That seems to have gone out the window. This year, I think a good "starter" bot for rookies would be something to ferry/herd empty cells from the outpost to the fueling station. It's a capability that any championship alliance must have, and it might be a task that scoring-focused members of an alliance won't have time for/won't be suited for.

[dmoody92]

I'm not really sure what kind of budget we are working on, I know at this point we atleast 4,500 to spend with some more prospects possible. So I'm not sure if that is good or bad this early in the season. Our mentor situation is good as I've stated and we have mentors in pretty much every field that we need. I also made a website for our team (with the help of a friend) it's rangerrobot.com, I know it's not great (most of the art is filler until I make something better) but it's something.

[NorviewsVeteran]

Remember to save your code as different versions each day, maybe include the date in the filename. If only you could do that with robots...

[mhaake]

Originally Posted by dmoody92

This maybe an irrational fear, but I am a bit nervous that this competition to get their idea in motion will cost us time. How do most teams settle on an idea? Is there a vote? Is usually unanimous? It will probably work itself out but I think it's something worth noting.

So different for every team. Last year was our team's second year. We had half a team of rookies and half a team of veterans. The rookies and veterans were pretty much split and had opposing ideas on what to do. The split was even and, with the people present, nothing was going to be fair. So we made our final robot to be a combination of both ideas. We were going to try to get an elevator, but if we couldn't get it by the end of the 6 weeks, we would just be a fast robot that can bring the ball around and spit it over the line to make a few extra points. That decision came with a lot of gritting our teeth and not happy people. But with GP, it happened. We ended up having a great robot and we all laugh about our frustrations still to this day. However, by the end of our first meeting, we had our design finished and ready to build.
On the other hand, this year, at our design and strategy meeting, there was no gritting of the teeth and everyone fully supported all ideas and we improved upon them. In addition, we don't have our "Final" design set up yet.

Both ways work. If you are gritting teeth right now, it happens. Stay calm, and don't ruin friendships. We didn't and we turned out to have a great team! I miss the team so much; however, I'm excited for the new group of girls we have this year.

If you have more questions about that, feel free to let me know. I'm one of the PR mentors for The Robettes and deal with management and help teach our girls the best way to handle situations and be good team members. Goodluck. You guys will do great!

~Morgann Haake

[PurpleHaze]

Here's some random points of advice (in the order it popped into my head)
Keep close track of everything you buy in one neat and well-organized document.

Make sure you know exactly what you are doing before you cut metal, because its easy to burn through metal (and your budget) with bad measurements and false starts.

Prototype your designs in wood.

Don't start too big and then have to scale down, rather, make a reasonable goal and try to reach it with flying colors.

Don't be scared at the competiton, TALK to other teams, make friends, and then keep contact with them.

If you want a good autonomous mode, do NOT leave it until you have a working robot to test it on. Code the basics beforehand.

Finally, relax, from the looks of it, you guys are in good shape (much better than we were in our rookie year).

[Molten]

As far as your worries about deciding between two designs, there are many ways to decide. Below are a few means.

Combine two ideas
Majority rules
Seniority rules
Executive decision
Rock, Paper, Scissors

My favorite though is to spend two hours on each design coming up with dimensions. Some designs don't have dimensions that can make them work reasonably. One year, we spent what seemed like the first two weeks and didn't even have a base designed or any idea what it was going to do because of conflict. I sat down and did some basic drafting to prove that some of the designs people were so passionate about simply wouldn't work. Hindsight, would we have gotten those designs to work? Probably, most designs can be forced to work. We just went with the most practical. The point is that we decided. I would suggest you try this method and if your getting nowhere, try one of the above.

[Otaku]

FRC robot programming isn't too difficult (well, don't know about this year, but to give you an idea: I'm pretty much the drivetrain leader this year and I did chassis the past two years and I was able to grab the programming laptop and fix an issue we had in the code on our test bot), this year it's C++ instead of C iirc, but they give you a lot of tools to do it because they understand that we're high school students and probably don't expect us to know programming as well as say, the people that write code for a living.

If I were you I'd do a few things:

1. Ask lots of questions here on CD. There's lots of good information and helpful people here.
2. Read a lot about programming this year. Older information won't apply as much because of the new control system and different coding language.
3. Have fun. I can't think of many rookie teams that do outstandingly well their first year.

The biggest part of FRC isn't winning, it's about learning and having fun. I can honestly say that just being at a regional, nevermind competing or placing well, is one of the many experiences in my life that I'll remember. Team 100 getting pushed over in '07... like, twice or three times, at Davis, during the semifinal matches. The sheer volume from the crowd as their robot tipped over. The different teams all cheering their little chants. All the different colored shirts and people with interesting outfits. Stuff like that.


FRC is more than just robots. FRC is learning. FRC is growing. FRC is having fun, socializing, and changing how you look at challenges. FRC is probably one of the most interesting things you'll do in your life.


Welcome to the madness of it all.

[Justin Montois]

Originally Posted by dmoody92

Hello everyone. My name is Dan, lead programmer on Team 3015 based out of Spencerport NY and will be competing in the RIT regional this year. As stated this is our first year and we are a bit worried. We barely were able to compete this year, by getting a large grant from NASA at the last second. I'm am very excited to make a robot but I feel a bit worried.

FIRST to me seems..well, hardcore. Every piece of building this robot from the mechanics, electronics and programming is much over the education that is offered at our school. As the programmer, I am very worried about failing, and not learning labView well enough to make a program.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice for us, something to get us going a bit. We are pretty hard at work attempting to design this thing but we would appreciate some help!

Hey Dan,
It's awesome that you guys were able to get the grant and GRR is looking forward to competing with you at FLR. I know one of your RIT mentors named Rob(The really tall guy) is a really nice guy and really knows his stuff. Also, I'm going to offer the opportunity for you guys to come over to Churchville anytime you need anything. Our shop isn't the best, but we have a nice welder and a Bridgeport milling machine and we would be more then happy to help you guys out. We have great mentors across the board so I'm confident we could help you with anything you needed. Don't hesitate to ask! Good luck this year!

-Justin

[Cynette]

Dan:

On behalf of Team 1511 in Penfield, welcome to FIRST! Take a deep breath and relax because you will be ok! I know that RIT FIRST has been working really hard to make sure the rookie teams in the area get off to a good start, and that you have been partnered with a veteran team in the area to provide you with support. Don't be afraid to pepper them with questions!

As far as programming goes, I know our team is using C++ for our programming this year, but we have mentors who use LABView every day, and one even ran some LABView training sessions during the preseason. We have those presentations available if you think they would help you! Check out our website http://www.penfieldrobotics.com and register for our forums. It will be an easy way to ask questions if you need help!

To put on your team's calendar! You'll have a chance to practice with your robot with other area teams at the Rolling Thunder's Rochester Rally on Feb 16th. That will give your team a chance to work out some last minute bugs with lots of veteran team support!

[MikePres]

Welcome to the FRC! =D
I completely understand your fears, as fellow rookies, we have the same ones.
I think that the game this year is a real helper for us and is a problem for old teams that never thought in that direction before. so we're kinda more even now with others.
Look for info and help from older teams, that will be a nice thing to start with...

[dmoody92]

Thanks for all the support guys!

We're down to about four ideas, I hope we can finialize our design on Saturday. Right now I am trying to decide between working with labView or C++. I know that this control system is kinda built for labView but I just can't read through these labView VIs while I am much more comfortable with C++ code. I dunno, I will probably put this in the programming section. Thanks again guys