Something my old team does at the end of every season (After the last regional or championships) is review what to do better for next season. The whole team sits down and discusses what they liked about this year, what they didn’t like, and what they think they could do better in. Though I’m not part of the team anymore, I still follow a similar habit, and review the things I’ve learned about robotics over the course of the season. I’m compiling all these lessons, but that’s a post for another day.
So, I’m asking, what have you guys learned this year? What did you come into the season thinking, but ended the season thinking something different. This could be anything from events you went to, team organization, or robotics.
Being not on a team, here are a few of the lessons I learned about robotics:
Don’t take the type of drive system you use for granted. Consider it’s effect on every aspect of the game.
Make whatever you can multipurpose. Use all of your resources as efficiently as possible.
Don’t overburden your programming team. Having them take on two complex software projects causes those projects to come out weaker.
When it comes to collecter mechanisms, if you are allowed to have it leave the frame perimeter, make use of that. Make it wide, and have it act as a funnel.
Beware the center of gravity of your robot in relation to the game. Don’t let it be too high if you’re going to be climbing obstacles.
On FRC2168 we had a roller coaster of a season. We built our most effective robot, had our most trained drivers and everything seemed to fall into place. We performed well, and with good luck seeded #1 at both NYC and CT, only to be taken out of both competitions by the same communication problems everyone saw on Einstein.
No matter how hard you work, some things are out of your control
Always look at the bigger picture (Did we win? No. Were our Students Inspired? No question, Absolutely)
Simple, clean, robust robots are great
Only stretch your resources lightly, and take note of what you’ll need in the future
-If the drive team ever does leave the venue, make sure they leave the drive team buttons in the pit.
-Make sure more than two people know how to operate the robot :rolleyes:
Figure out what your team can be unique about and make it perfect. We were “good” at autonomous before champs, but on Thursday we
1.) Planned to be on the left or right corner of the key only in order to be out of the way of an alliance that also backed up to the bridges
2.) Tuned the minimum timing of our first shot down to 3 seconds after an interference in our 2nd match
3.) Found the theoretical maximum for the last ball to leave our bot and still clear the rim in auton
4.) Made a sighting mechanism that could aim at the bolts connecting the rim to the backboard
5.) Found the difference in manual alignment between a hard and soft ball for auton
6.) Showcased the adjustable timing of autonomous so as to not interfere with balls from other bots
This led to a 92% (13 of 14) autonomous accuracy after our 2nd match on Thursday. It also led to being on some short lists Saturday and eventually got us picked for the 5th alliance.
Now we tape a zip-top bag to the robot cart to hold the buttons. At the end of a match when they get back to the pit, the drivers take off the buttons and put them in the bag. A bit extreme but this ensures that the buttons will be there even if the drive team wanders off.
