As a rookie team we are starting to put together our design/build schedule for the 2005 season. I was wondering if teams might be willing to share their schedules, with milestones & goals for this upcoming season to help us put together a plan.
(And I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!!)
Roughly…
Week 1: Brainstorm in small groups, present, finalize a solution
Week 2: Work out details for subsystems in subsystem groups
Week 3: Prototype subsystems (physically or in CAD)
Week 4: Manufacturing of subsystems
Week 5: Assembly (and possibly more manufacturing)
Week 6: Testing & Debugging (programming has a lot of fun during this time)
Well, we generally don’t set our goals in stone until the game is unveiled, although usually our schedule is very nearly the same every year; here’s our schedule from two years ago, breaking down the six weeks of the 2003 Season. Our 2004 Schedule was similar but not all goals were met on time. The way we set it up, any delays will cut into practice and testing, but by the end of the six weeks we should be done construction with some time to spare.
I would like to be the first to welcome you, I hope you have a great season. Many teams have put up some very valuable advice in the white papers, so you may want to check those out first. our team usually tries to come up with some preliminary plans, and then construct a drivetrain as quick as possible, so we can have something to practice on. We also modify one of our robots from a previous year so we can get two robots to practice with. The rest of the time is spent frantically trying to get the rest of the robot completed before the 6 weeks.
good luck!
Welcome as well and Happy Holidays.
What ever your team decides, the 6 weeks will fly by. Get as much done as early as possible. What 237 did this last year was limit design discussion to two days and started building on the third. We had wheels rolling on the ground in three weeks. This gave us enough time to adequately build our shimmy and arm.
I would look at the white papers for drive train and bases. Download and discuss what you think is interesting, and that will jump start your 6 weeks.
Good Luck.
Here is our pretty detailed schedule
Saturday 1/8: Kickoff at 6 am at Clark. Very important for the mentors involved in design to be part of these first moments. Teacher will prepare activities (and solicits ideas from all) to explore scoring strategies after the video feed. After lunch we unpack the kit and discuss what we have to work with. Finish the day with additional activities related to scoring strategies.
Sunday 1/9: 1:00 pm until 5 pm. 1 or 2 more hours in small groups to form our game strategy and finish with a whole group discussion to make recommendations to design-groups as to what characteristics will be desired when the selection process takes place Thursday night. Engineering and design input strongly desired at this stage. Finish the day by dividing up students and adults to form 3 or 4 design teams who will make independent proposals Thursday for selection by vets with mentor veto power. After 4 years of this, I believe strongly that teams should be encouraged to include as many scoring options as possible. They might support their proposals with pictures of mechanisms used by other teams in the past as evidence of feasibility. This may be a good time for anyone, especially adults who have veto power, to make clear certain requirements for the robot design. See my comments below for Thursday 1/13.
Monday through Wednesday 1/10 through 1/12. Teacher will provide facilities for design groups to meet at school between the hours of 3pm and 9pm as requested by the design groups. Teacher will assure that there is cardboard for modeling, graph paper, drafting software. Groups will create as detailed a proposal as possible before 6 pm on Thursday when it will be presented to vets and mentors for consideration. The proposal must explain the game playing philosophy and options supported by the physical design. The porposal must be in a form that is easy to see by the entire team either on individual copies or overhead projector or some other media viewable by all. I will need to know special needs (projector/computer/TV/etc) by Tuesday.
Thursday 1/13: The facility will be open from 3 pm on for finalizing proposals. The full team will meet at 6 for as long as necessary to decide on a direction for further development. That may be one of the 3 or 4 proposals or a hybrid. One thing that I personally will feel very strongly about, if the game resembles all others in the sense that their is head to head combat, is that the chassis and guts must be as low and compact as possible to optimize our advantage when struggling with other robots. I think this is a time when adults must gently but firmly direct the design process. I also believe we need to be respectful and constructive in our suggestions and questions when students have done their best in the horribly limited time/experience/expertise framework we’ve been given. Then we will select the following teams, probably: overal system/chassis, drive train, programming/electronics, specialized mechanisms, field parts, strategy?, what else?.
Thereafter we will meet every Saturday from 8:30 until 5 and Sunday 1 until 5. I will also stay one weekday (how about Wednesday, from 3 until 9). I’m also willing to extend hours and add days as necessary but will not do so if I see time wasted during regular hours. I’m hoping the engineering support will be there through 1/30 (the first 3 weeks) on a regular basis. I hope that during that time a method for checking specs and details might be worked out so that the engineers can provide less constant on site support thereafter. Our fabrication support will need to kick in by about 1/22. Aram will oversee work at GCC in communication with engrs, Mark will oversee sheet metal and laser cutting, and I believe we have the support of a local CNC machine shop owned by the brother of a parent of one of our new students. I’ll bet it would be smart to select a date/time like Wednesday 1/19 at 8pm for all mentors and fabricator liaisons to be in the same place at the same time to talk about how the process unfolds smoothly.
If all goes as planned and expected we’ll be finished building by Wednesday 2/16 and plenty of time to practice and debug before the prelims at Chatsworth on Sunday 2/20. Ship on Tuesday 2/22.
Thanks all so far for the schedule advice. I am paticularly interested if anyone has a microsoft project type schedule so that we can see where work overlaps.
Thanks!
Team 116 has schedules online for a few years.
January and February 2003, with meeting notes.
2002 Schedule, with notes.
2000 Schedule in the form of what happened.
As for where the work overlaps, it overlaps everywhere. Things will get redesigned as they get built, things will break and need to get rebuilt, there will be some reason that you can’t build on a day you are supposed to.
Watch kickoff, take a few days to a week to brainstorm what you what to build. Then figure out how long it will take to build the parts and schedule around that. It is very helpful to have a working drive base early for driver practice, and a finished robot with time for you operators to practice.
I think the scheduling and then staying on schedule is one of the harder aspects of building the robot. Good luck.
Wetzel
www.team116.org
Kickoff day: Watch unveiling with team at local theater/go home and think!
Sunday after kickoff: Discuss different strategies and ways to play the game.
Monday after kickoff: Stay home, eat, sleep, and dream about your new robot.
Tuesday after kickoff: Talk about different ways as to how you are going to play the strategies we have decided to use.
Build/Prototype/Test those ways.
By the end of week 2 1/2 hopefully have working drivetrain or partially working drivetrain
By the end of week 4 1/2 hopefully have working components to play the game.
Somewhere between here do wiring!
From week 4 1/2 to the end of week 6 make finishing touches to the robot, skins, add lexan protection to electronics and important mechanical features.
Also do programing, driving, and autonomous!
Next ship the bot and dream of winning your first regional!
Good luck!
One thing to ad that I have not seen mentioned. Last year we printed the rules for 2004. No one was allowed to discuss anything about the design until all of the rules had been read. I also asked questions about the rules during discussions to be sure that the rules were known.
One other important thing I forgot to mention is that you need some sort of moderator when you discuss strategies and design.
An Engineer who knows mechanical stuff and is intelligent would be best!
Sometimes things get out of hand when someone wants something that someone else does not on the robot.
You also need a BIG White Board to write all your ideas on!
Plans are good, but don’t hang yourself by them. I suggest you set milestones, i.e. chassis done by 1/20 for example. I also suggest you set that date a little ahead of reality. Then go nuts on your teammates when that date slips. This will invigorate the doers, and you will be on your way to becoming a true project manager. Don’t get caught resting on an accomplishment. People will have a tendency to say “hey look how good we’re doing” then want to cancel a meeting etc. But in this game, progress always matters. You have to keep moving, even if you think you’re ahead. 6 weeks is nothing, so be realistic about the actual amount of time your team will be meeting and working. Many teams can’t seem to get together enough.
This is especially true if you’re a rookie or second-year team that hasn’t got a clue. We in 1208 started our first two years off that way and found out that, halfway through the build season last year, we were actually being counterproductive in doing that.
Also, instilling a sense of authority into your cats^H^H^H^Hteammates will help move things along too. If they don’t feel that you’re in a position of authority, they won’t listen, and you won’t get any meaningful work done.
If you can, meet every single day. Our team here revolves around the second-year physics class, and the students in there have all of third quarter to concentrate on the robotics build season, so a lot of the gruntwork goes on from day to day. The subteams all have their own two- to three-hour meetings during the week, and Saturdays are generally when everyone comes in to do work for eight hours. We also come in and treat snow days like Saturdays.
For what it’s worth, the more time you invest in it, the more you’ll get out of it.
In my opinion getting all that stuff done in 6 weeks is highly important. Having a set schedule is key in the success of completion of your robot. I have always learned, get the job done! Get it done, no matter what it takes. Use your time wisely and put in as many hours as you feel necessary.