What would you do if build were longer?

[Eric O]

I would build a second chassis and super structure, taking time to make sure it was rock solid and make all the improvements learned after making the first one. Then I would take the mechanism from the first chassis and transfer that to the second one.

Oh wait....we did that this year! There was no limit to the build season this year. The constraint this year was that the robot you fielded had to be made of anything you put in the crate, any unassembled COTS you wanted and 40lbs of custom parts you brought to the regional. We went to a week 5 regional, so we met once or twice a week after ship to finish this new chassis. The extra time was very low stress because we knew exactly what we were building and how well it would work.

Although I enjoyed the extra time allowed us to have a more reliable robot, I would rather just have the 6 weeks. It takes a bit more experience with the competition and the design process, but there are some amazing creations built in 6 weeks, I don't think we need any longer than that.