Tips to make your robot look good.

[artdutra04]

It's all about the small details.

[VanMan]

I prefer the robots that look like they were made with hardly any time or funding. If the robot doesn't look good, people don't expect much and when it does well, people will be more impressed. With powder coated and nice looking robots, people mentally expect them to do better and if they don't preform well, people will be surprised. That's just my opinion. And I don't have any advice on how to make a robot look nice. All of the robots that I've built with my team in the past have looked only half decent although most preformed above average.

[BJC]

I think that you will find that teams that consistanty have a good looking robot also have a good brand image. For instance many teams have unique colors that they use on their robot every year. These team's robots are often able to be recognized from a long way off because of their uniqueness.

For example, if you were to put my own team 33's robot is a gigantic line along side of every other team in the world. Most people who knew our name, the killer bees, would be able to walk down that line and clearly distinguish our robot from all the others because our robot is covered in yellow honeycomb every year.

Just food for thought

[Andy L]

Originally Posted by =Martin=Taylor=

Carefully design your robot in CAD.

Then: poorly machine the parts (make sure to drill a lot of unnecessary holes). Do a terrible job welding (the key here is to make sure nothing comes out 90*, while maximizing burnthrough and blobbyness). Duct Tape. Use it wherever possible. When wiring, make sure to use as much wire as possible and tie it in great nots all over the bot.

...Then cover everything in plastic panels so no one notices


What? You think I'm joking?

I laughed for a good three minutes, because it's completely true

[VanMan]

Originally Posted by BJC

I think that you will find that teams that consistanty have a good looking robot also have a good brand image. For instance many teams have unique colors that they use on their robot every year. These team's robots are often able to be recognized from a long way off because of their uniqueness.

For example, if you were to put my own team 33's robot is a gigantic line along side of every other team in the world. Most people who knew our name, the killer bees, would be able to walk down that line and clearly distinguish our robot from all the others because our robot is covered in yellow honeycomb every year.

Just food for thought

I agree with this. The alliance colored bumpers really changed that this year though. If a team has a specific color scheme and it doesn't really go well with red or blue, then it changes robot appearance a bit.

[jblay]

I think giving the robot a face makes it look super awesome.





Also cading out your robot and knowing where everything is going to go (especially electronics) helps make your bot not only good looking but much more organize and easy to deal with at competition.

[Karibou]

For the past few years, 1189 has used fabric for either robot parts (2006), or robot coverings. One of our mentors/sponsors is a wonderful seamstress, and she takes care of all of our bumper and robot clothing needs. What we call our robot clothing is a easy way to protect the electronics, springs, wires, chains, etc. of our robots, display sponsor logos, and look good (don't forget, your robot's image plays a part in the Imagery award!). All of the "1189"'s in the following pictures are fabric numbers that are sewn on, but the yellow diamonds and sponsor logos are all some kind of laminated sheeting. I think that they might actually be stickers that were sewn on, because we have a ton of look-alikes sitting in a folder in our shop that are definitely stickers.

2007:


2008:



For the past few years, our robot designs haven't allowed us to use fabric coverings. 2009 didn't need it - we had a lexan-aluminum-and-zip-ties robot. This year we needed a hard surface to serve as a ball deflector, so we painted a piece of regolith yellow (it was last minute!), and plastered sponsor stickers all over the frame and the regolith. Stickers work well, as long as they're either sewn to something or attached to a hard surface.


(...this post coming from the team with 3 spirit awards and 3 imagery awards)

[Kims Robot]

Spray paint! (and camo bumpers!)
Last year, 1511 had a contact that offered to powdercoat parts for us, but it was a 4 hour round trip drive, and the process took a while. Our drivetrain got done, but in the rush to finish the rest of the robot, we didnt have time, so we tried metal spraypaint, and it worked beautifully!

Flash forward to this year, and we again used red & black spraypaint, and coupled that with a crazy camo mesh hand painted by one of our mentors! Version 2 of the robot was a metal mesh with some more spray paint.

Its not quite as fancy or pretty as annodizing or powdercoating, but it works well to have a pretty distinguished, non-aluminum looking robot.

[Kibaspirit]

I prefer the robots that look like they were made with hardly any time or funding. If the robot doesn't look good, people don't expect much and when it does well, people will be more impressed. With powder coated and nice looking robots, people mentally expect them to do better and if they don't preform well, people will be surprised.

I totally agree! Our robots don't always look the best, but, especially this year, we have had no issues. It doesn't matter how a robot looks. If it doesn't work, what does it matter what it looks like?

Fabricated robots are nice, but we wonder where other teams find the time for that.
(We only have 9 students)

[Andrew Remmers]

Gota sell that sizzle! Personally I think that if your robot is more recognizable and rememberable (along with your team) it will be more rememberable to other teams for time to come. For 4 years now 1902 has have (what I think) very nice looking robots. We have a great sponsor who powder-coats it for us. However If you look at some of our parts; since we do not have a crazy amount of machining capability for cheap, we hand fabricate alot of our parts. If you take this years robot for example, we have an Aluminum tubing superstructure that mounts our hanging mechanism, and gives rigidity to our robot. There was no weight to powder-coat it so we wire brushed this part to give it that really nice Aluminum finish.

That is a little bit of what Exploding Bacon does

Hope this helps!!

[Wayne Doenges]

How do you make your robot look good?

One word.........MONOCOQUE

[Nick Lawrence]

Close attention to detail, paint, and shiny parts! Also, graphics are nice too.

http://picasaweb.google.com/patfair/...36141225772242

-Nick

[Alex Cormier]

I much prefer some twin wall lexan with some metallic paint and good looking vinyl decals.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/34981
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/21742

[Enigma's puzzle]

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

How do you make your robot look good?

One word.........MONOCOQUE

I have to admit your thrust robots are some of the coolest and best looking robots around, but i personally do not have the patience to build robots like that, but more power to you.


The biggest part of building a good looking robot i would have to say is for the selection process, if your robot looks like it is way too open, or some sort of extremity looks like it snaps off the first time it gets hit, I'm looking at your robot with caution. and in any spots where you have near equal talent compared to another team, they will get the edge because they look more durable.

1) So cover your main body of your robot, and if it looks good below the cover then make a clear material.
2) make sure any parts that you can see outside your main body look reliable and rugged.
3) Straight cuts, centered bolt holes, etc. Just keep it looking clean cut, unless that is the functionality of course.
4) Any sort of numbers or letters meant to be displayed should be stenciled, or machine cut, if at all possible! It really looks better.

[s_forbes]

As others have said, a high attention to detail and added decals will make your robot look good.

If you want your robot to look beautiful, you need to take appearance into account in the beginning and design your robot around aesthetically pleasing shapes and elegant curves that are both functional and graceful. (like this for example)