How Do You Make Your Robot?

[JesseK]

2006: Welded Aluminum (box, angle, 1/8" plate); 1/8" plate and 1/2" tube for mechanisms
2007: Welded box aluminum, and it took the welder 3 tries to get it right without warping; 1/4" thick honeycombed fiberglass for the ramps with KOP U channel for structure bolted to the frame
2008: Welded box aluminum, simple design; 80/20 for elevator and it was heavy, too much to maintain, and very innefficient
2009: Welded box aluminum frame; riveted plate gussets to mechanisms; used honeycombed aluminum for the floor of the bot
2010: Welded box aluminum for the frame; waterjet plate for precision mechanism parts;

2011: Most likely we will use box aluminum, welded by a sponsor again. However, during the offseason we will experiment first. We've toyed with prototypes that use C-Channel and cantilevered wheels since 3" C-Channel provides a perfect mounting channel for the AM SuperShifter. However, we like our 2010 direct-drive system, so we may to 1" box Aluminum and some waterjet plates. We have excellent CAD students this year and a potential sponsor with a waterjet so we will see what else we can do with it and 1/8" or 1/4" Aluminum plate.