WOW factor

[PAR_WIG1350]

I cannot disclose the feature of our robot with the biggest wow factor, but the arm is really nice .

[Arefin Bari]

We are making a 22wd. is that a wow factor?

[Ian Curtis]

Where's the fun in FIRST if you don't put a little Bling in your machines? I've traded in my 6061 and Polycord for balsa wood and cyanoacrylate, but I'll be darned if there wasn't something on every robot that rolled out of 1276's shop that made us go "WOW!" (we always hoped the judges would go "WOW!" too, but that never panned out )

[synth3tk]

Originally Posted by iCurtis

Where's the fun in FIRST if you don't put a little Bling in your machines?

For us, building the machines, and the competition itself. Trust me, we get a lot of miles and smiles out of it.

[Koko Ed]

One thing I have observed with far too many teams is they go for the WOW factor when they aren't even capable of accomplishing something as simple as going from point A to point B.
Remember in the modern 3 team alliance structure if you do one thing and do it well there is a place for you. If you do nothing well people will forget your name very quickly. That doesn't have to be a WOW factor either. More like an ALRIGHT factor. I'll take reliable over WOW any day of the week.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

One thing I have observed with far too many teams is they go for the WOW factor when they aren't even capable of accomplishing something as simple as going from point A to point B.
Remember in the modern 3 team alliance structure if you do one thing and do it well there is a place for you. If you do nothing well people will forget your name very quickly. That doesn't have to be a WOW factor either. More like an ALRIGHT factor. I'll take reliable over WOW any day of the week.

There are some very wise words in the above post.

When we design, the 'WOW' factor never enters into the conversation. Everything is about 'Does it enchance our strategy?' and 'Is it reliable?'.

Everything else is not worthwhile. Championship teams are made because what they do, they do very well.

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

There are some very wise words in the above post.

When we design, the 'WOW' factor never enters into the conversation. Everything is about 'Does it enchance our strategy?' and 'Is it reliable?'.

Everything else is not worthwhile. Championship teams are made because what they do, they do very well.

But when you look at the finish product, you never find something worth saying "WOW" about?

(I experienced the WOW factor of your robot last year on the far side of the field! )

[IndySam]

Ed is right. I have seen a lot of robots with serious even award winning WOW that sucked at playing the game.

[Chris is me]

Okay, I finally figured out the WOW factor for my team's robot.

With practice, tuning, current conservative estimates say we can go from normal configuration to above the plane in under 5 seconds. Arm deploy, hook snag, AND hang. In practice, I'm going to say 10 seconds, but I'm cautiously excited.

And that's not the part of our robot we put the most emphasis on. I'm really excited.

[robochick44]

hmmm. WOW factor? well, two out of the three years i've been on the team, we've used fans.

just sayin.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by iCurtis

But when you look at the finish product, you never find something worth saying "WOW" about?

(I experienced the WOW factor of your robot last year on the far side of the field! )

Thank you for the compliment.

... and I'll tell you the truth, while I never design for 'WOW', every year I look at the robot when it's done and I'm amazed at what the kids have built.

This year will probably be no different (although I'm too tired right now to enjoy the WOW factor)

[Bandgeek80001]

Our WOW factor, when it works, will be the integration between kicker and arm.

Again, when it works...

[spacegy4]

Our wow factor is definitely in our kicker

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...egy4/Robot.jpg

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...nderrender.jpg

the spinning kicker is controlled by pneumatic pistons to slide it in and out of the plexi gate.

By utilizing an encoder on the spinner and the time it takes for the pistons to deploy we can choose where the spinner hits the ball as well as how fast its going at that time. (we can do high and low shots-even though its a spinner!. This gives the advantage of a spinner with the precision control you would get from an adjustable foot style kicker)

(Cutting the inside geometry for the gate would not be possible without our new CNC laser cutter! FTW)

[Mr. Lim]

The "wow" factor? The ability to put balls into the goals at an alarmingly high rate

[O'Sancheski]

I know a lot of teams that are trying to accomplish climbing the bump, hanging, scoring, and playing defense. This year is a year that your robot needs to focus on one thing. For example, if you have a robot that can score a lot of balls, then you need to focus on that goal, and not try to accomplish all the tasks. If you try to accomplish all of the tasks then most teams are not going to have a dominating robot. I'm not saying that no team is going to be able to accomplish all of the tasks that FIRST has provided us with this year, I'm just saying that it is going to be difficult.