How many teams made 2 robots

[Joe Ross]

We also modified last year's robot to behave very similarly to this years robot. We used the kitbot to prototype drivetrain concepts. We also used 2003's robot unmodified to test other concepts.

So, we didn't make a whole new 2nd robot, but we did get 90% of the benefit for very little extra time.

[the_short1]

i expected a lot more teams (we heard it was very common for teams to make two).. . .. whoa. . i guess thats why our team got rookie allstar . .. awsome!.,..

it was a very trying experience with a lot of man hours.. and our practice bot was done in under a week after shipoff (minor touches to the arm). .... and trying to convert our C code into PBASIC (we had a older robot controller donated to us) . . so we could drive our bot around with arm. . .

for the money.. well we are paying the price now. . for we are only at 13/25k to go to the nationals eek. ... we never imagined we would get to nationals.. so we had signed up for two regionals (glr and toronto) <just for the fun and experience.... we are leaving for toronto tomorow .. because that was prepaid (b4 we knew of atlanta) so it would be awaste not to go.. wed only get 10% money back . .. .

... so far our team has used 50k roughly . . . and going to be another 25k so we can go to nationals. . we have some awsome sponsers like GM, convergence, Native tribe of sault mich, LEGO, etc.. so we thank them muchly . . it still amazes me how our team mentors managed to get a lot of that money considering we didnlt have a robot at the time and that was our rookie year, but now it is slightly eassier cuz we can say were going to the nationals.

i should start a thread of how much cash each team had..

[Justin1636]

Team 159 Alpine Robotics made 2 robots that were exactly the same and a mini replica of that same robot minus the arm that was radio controled. It was very impressive that they had enough time to to all that in the six weeks

[dm0ney]

The most functional robots ever running around our place at once were three.

We have our competition bot that we see every regional / nationals now.
We have a 90% identical (code makes it identical more or less) practice robot that we see everyday we want to.

At the beginning of the season, we build the kit bot to prototype arm designs and pneumatic systems on and kept the drive base of last year's robot for the programmers.
The kitbot got gutted but the programming bot stayed the entire season.

Near the end, we had our two 05 bots made and the programming robot.

Now we're down to just the two robots: one competition, one practice.

Before every regional, we take the transmissions out (they're drop in), sheet metal side panels, and wheels off the practice bot as our prefab material since all were made during build and havent been touched since.

[doop_forces]

MOE has a practice robot, cozMOE. We started working on it immediatly aftert our main robot, MOEbius was completed. It gives our drivers more practice and a bettert idea of what they should watch out for during matches.

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by doop_forces

MOE has a practice robot, cozMOE. We started working on it immediatly aftert our main robot, MOEbius was completed. It gives our drivers more practice and a bettert idea of what they should watch out for during matches.

Actually, most of our practice bots are made from parts scavenged from previous MOEbots. BigMOE, MOEhawk, GeroniMOE only exist today in our memories. The one untouchable MOEbot we have built is L'il MOE, the 2001 FIRST Champion. We keep it well maintained and running, and because it is so small (read as "easily transportable"), we use it continuously in presentations to the public to generate more interest in FIRST programs.

[dubious elise]

For the past two years, we have built a competition robot and a practice robot almost simultaneously. This is primarily becase we have been using steel for frames and could only get a mentor or parent to come in once in a great long while to weld everything perfectly square for us. Our practice bot is usually at least a few steps ahead of our competition bot so that we can work out all of the kinks before we make a big decision.
Practice bots are also great for getting the feel of driving with whatever drivetrain you are using for the year before you have to ship off the final bot.

[Damian Manda]

Originally Posted by Justin1636

Team 159 Alpine Robotics made 2 robots that were exactly the same and a mini replica of that same robot minus the arm that was radio controled. It was very impressive that they had enough time to to all that in the six weeks

Yes, the two robots were made possible by our new CNC mill, which can churn off two identical plates very quickly. The money for the new machinery was from a school district grant of $100,000 which enabled us to retrofit our entire shop and drafting labs.

The mini robot was actually made after the build season, by our main mechanical designer who essentially designed and built our main robot as well. By nationals we had a working arm and tower that was even pneumatically powered (although it had to be recharged from an external compressor).

[soshowtherobot]

It really is great for the people who can afford to build 2 robots. Most rookie teams can get money pretty easy cause now that FIRST robotics is so recognized many companys give money to the rookie to get them started cause they like the idea of FIRST. But try that afterwards.....a vetran team nowadays gets lucky to have more than 2 sponsors or sometimes even 1 sponsor whether you are a recognized team or not. also if teams had money to build a second robot they would usually use it to have money to start the year after.

[Vin211]

Sometimes it is not uncommon for team to experiment and build a first (practice) robot using Lego Mindstorms. I have seen many teams experiment with a smaller model before working on the actual robot.

[ScoutingNerd175]

A few of our team members (myself included) spent much of the first half of the week of nationals working with the practice robot. (we were on school vacation and could leave our practice field set up) This gave our drivers quite a bit more practice. It also gave us an opportunity to select and train backup drivers. This turned out to be very important to us at Nationals when our back up arm driver had to step in.

[Queen_of_Mascot]

We had a second 'practice bot', save that we didn't have all the motors and stuffs attached to it, and insted of our non-working crane, a large lead cylinder sufficed.

Now that the season's over, we're gonna turn it into a lowrider robot with hydraulics to help convert new freshman during orientation. -grins-

[tckma]

Yes and no.

Once the UTC regional was over, we modified our 2004 robot to work with this year's game. We discovered the 2004 arm could not pick up a standard PVC tetra (too heavy), so we made the "Tetra Lite" or "Diet Tetra" out of dowel wood.

We re-wired the '04 robot to work with our '05 control system, and the drivers practiced in this configuration ('05 controls with '04 robot and the "Diet Tetra").

No team I have been a part of has ever made more than one robot. It is usually due to lack of time and/or money.

[Chris Sturrock]

Our teams (1114, 1503, and 1680) built 4 robots this year... 3 FIRST legal robots, 1 for each team, and a practice bot that we shared. they were all built within the 6 week time limit because we usually had a few students from each team and an engeneer working on the practice bot while everyone else worked on their teams robots.

[NeedMoreEngines]

we built our main robot first, and then after the build season we whipped up a little one for our programmer to test our autonomous modes on. It was pretty much a big aluminum r/c car, which a camera mount, a gyro, and some wheel encoders. we told a couple of people before the virginia regional that this was our real robot, and they just laughed and walked away.