First Robot

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Working que the past few years it stuns me the amount of teams that go all out to build a fancy tricked out motorized cart (which then I have to move to the right place after they loaded their robot onto the field and they forgot all about it) but build a mediocre robot.
Build a manual cart that gets the robot and important things like batteries and tools to the field and spend more time on focusing on building a more competitive robot.
You'll be better for it in the long run.

I agree with what Ed has said. Happens a little too much where a "sick" cart carries a mediocre to "what the heck does it do" robots.

However, building carts like this can be a good learning experience. Designing and building a motorized cart can be a useful tool when bringing new students onto the team as you can introduce CAD and other methods of the team into the process. But don't make it such a huge priority that other items get side tracked all for the precious cart!

Our team has a simple garden cart from the hardware store with some rails to support the robot, along with a rack in the front to hold some batteries other items of use when your out on the field, (tether, some tools, etc...). We have found that it works really well as it has large tires making it easy to traverse over uneven ground without rocking the bot too much.

Good luck with whatever you end up creating.

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

Our team has a simple garden cart from the hardware store with some rails to support the robot, along with a rack in the front to hold some batteries other items of use when your out on the field, (tether, some tools, etc...). We have found that it works really well as it has large tires making it easy to traverse over uneven ground without rocking the bot too much.

Good luck with whatever you end up creating.

Agreed. We had a garden cart with 2x8s around edge that was spray painted red. Robot sat on the top of the 2x6s, and the area underneath was great for batteries and zip ties. We used it for five seasons, but it was definitely a little worse for wear at the end of last year.

We had a ground level cart on casters in 2004 that was a real pain. You definitely want to be able to pull it from a normal height.