Practice Robot??

[Athenian Roboti]

We recognize that during “crunch time” much of the robot fabrication is done by more experienced members of the team. We feel that a good way to introduce our new team members to construction in a fun and relaxing manner is to build a practice robot. Given that no parts from the practice robot built outside of the build period and “FIX-IT WINDOW” would be used on the competition robot, would it be possible to construct a practice robot?

Athenian Robotics Collective

[Eria4044]

I'm pretty sure you could just reverse engineer parts from the FIRST kit. Besides, even if it isn't the most accurate recreation ever, just getting experience (any experience) will be valuable for the new members.

[Wetzel]

Building a practice robot is perfectly alright. If you can afford it (time and money) it will be very beneficial.

Wetzel

[techtiger1]

This is a great idea many teams do this including mine. Yes, it is very possible and legal to do this as long as you obey the Fix it windows. Building a prototype bot as we call it, is wonderful because it allows you to see mechanical design flaws, what the whole finished product is going to look like and possibly fix layout of electronics and pneumatics better by seeing areas were you have more or less space. Finally, this is a good way to have less experienced kids get acquainted with the robots systems like you stated as well.

Good luck,
Drew