Shipping the mini-bot?

[outboardmeat]

Hi my team just has one question. Do you have to ship the mini bot with the robot? urgent the sooner the better.

[Joe Ross]

You should review <R33>

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Nobody worries about shipping issues in the first, second or even fourth week.

[outboardmeat]

i know but it will determine if we work on the mini bots now or later.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by outboardmeat

i know but it will determine if we work on the mini bots now or later.

Is there a reason that you can't work on them both now and later?

Or, more to the point: Do you have a strategy? If no, stop. Minibot and robot work can wait. Get a strategy, then a list of what you need to be able to do to accomplish it.
Do you have a preliminary design? If no, stop. Get one. Make sure to have space for a minibot--there are some suggestions in the standardization thread.
Are you into the detailed design/build? If yes (and the answers to the above are both yes), then you probably want to focus on the main robot first. About Week 3/4, when you've got most of the work done/in progress, set a "tiger team" of 3-4 team members to work on the minibot build. It's smaller and somewhat simpler. That group will also get the fun of designing the fine details of the interface to the hostbot, like how you're activating/deploying the minibot, but you'll have a better idea of limitations imposed by the design.

Minibots are important, but they're not the entire game.

Also see the rule referenced by Joe.

[Tem1514 Mentor]

SIX WEEKS to design, build, test and then BAG it, hands OFF except for the allowed "retained items". It's in the rules, remember the G.P. part of FIRST?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Tem1514 Mentor

SIX WEEKS to design, build, test and then BAG it, hands OFF except for the allowed "retained items". It's in the rules, remember the G.P. part of FIRST?

Guess what? The Minibot is explicitly excepted from the Withholding Allowance weight. And, you can retain just about any portion of the robot to work on in particular ways. This includes the Minibot.

That is also in the rules.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Tem1514 Mentor

SIX WEEKS to design, build, test and then BAG it, hands OFF except for the allowed "retained items". It's in the rules, remember the G.P. part of FIRST?

A slanderous use of not only the rule book, but GP as a whole. Part of understanding gracious professionalism, is to also be PROFESSIONAL, which your post contained none of.

Before accusing someone of being "un-GP", maybe you should take it upon yourself to look up the actual rules the OP was asking about.

<R33> Teams may bring a maximum of 30 pounds of custom FABRICATED ITEMS (SPARE
PARTS, REPLACEMENT PARTS, and UPGRADE PARTS, plus all WITHHOLDING
ALLOWANCE items) to each competition event to be used to repair and/or upgrade their
ROBOT at the competition site. All other FABRICATED ITEMS to be used on the ROBOT
during the competition shall arrive at the competition venue packed in the shipping crate or
lockout bag with the ROBOT.
There are two exceptions to this rule:
A. the OPERATOR CONSOLE is not included in the incoming parts weight restriction,
B. the MINIBOT is not included in the incoming parts weights restriction,

Emphasis mine.

-Brando

[JesseK]

If you know that you will make a minibot, then it is very important to put some form of thought into the deployment mechanism early on since you may have to order pneumatics, electronics, or other components that have a 3-5 day lead time or ship time. Thinking about it in Week 4 is too late is many cases, especially if the build schedule is delayed due to weather.

I only say this because the "Minibot Rate of Climb" thread got me thinking about the sequence of events needed to successfully deploy on the FRC field.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Tem1514 Mentor

SIX WEEKS to design, build, test and then BAG it, hands OFF except for the allowed "retained items". It's in the rules, remember the G.P. part of FIRST?

I just have one question (and I don't mean to hi-jack the thread, or start a discussion: I'm just wondering)...what exactly did you see in the post that wasn't GP?

[Basel A]

Originally Posted by Karibou

I just have one question (and I don't mean to hi-jack the thread, or start a discussion: I'm just wondering)...what exactly did you see in the post that wasn't GP?

I believe he was referring to a illegal creation of a minibot post-ship date, though this is only really possible if (a) it was illegal and (b) the team is zipping rather than shipping (bag&tag event).

[Cheerleader1073]

Hello!

It looks like there's really no definitive answer here and someone's asked on the FIRST forums but there's still no GDC answer... since the definition of ROBOT is ROBOT = HOSTBOT + MINIBOT, our team is still in question of this too. Does anyone now know whether the MINIBOT has to be shipped (or bagged) on ship date? We've read <R33> over and over with the definition of this and can't come to a conslusion!

Thanks,
Gen

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Gen,
The rule is referencing what you may bring to competition so the rule is telling you that the minibot may be brought with you to competition events. In the spirit of the minibot, FTC and FLL teams may also bring minibots to lend to FRC teams at the same events. FTC and FLL teams would not be subject to FRC ship or bag and tag rules so the minibot only is explained in R33 to allow for any FLL, FTC, or FRC team to bring in the minbot on competition days and it is not subject to the withholding allowance on FRC teams only.

[Cheerleader1073]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

Gen,
The rule is referencing what you may bring to competition so the rule is telling you that the minibot may be brought with you to competition events. In the spirit of the minibot, FTC and FLL teams may also bring minibots to lend to FRC teams at the same events. FTC and FLL teams would not be subject to FRC ship or bag and tag rules so the minibot only is explained in R33 to allow for any FLL, FTC, or FRC team to bring in the minbot on competition days and it is not subject to the withholding allowance on FRC teams only.

Awesome, thanks for confirming that for us!