Meet the 2024 REV ION FRC Starter Bot! Using all REV ION parts, the Starter Bot is the culmination of analyzing the game, prototyping, and technical documentation. The 2024 REV ION FRC Starter Bot is designed to give teams a starting point for building their robot, while leaving room for iteration, revision, and adaptation to the game’s challenges. Read more about the 2024 REV ION FRC Starter Bot on our website: REV ION - 2024 REV ION FRC Starter Bot - Page 1 - REV Robotics
@Greg_Needel My team was considering this as a starting point for our robot. Compared to the 2024 kitbot, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the Rev Ion starter bot?
This may come off a bit harsh or antagonistic, and that is not my intention–your question isn’t easy to answer because of how large in scope it is. It is not really a question someone from REV can answer without writing quite a bit.
What sorts of thoughts and observations have you or your team noticed when comparing the two? With those observations, what specifics can you identify to better inform more detailed questions?
My team has already started building the kitbot. And we have several ideas to make it better. What I am asking is: what is the value of the Rev Ion? What can it do that the kitbot can’t, and more importantly, how can we improve it? If we just buy a robot kit and follow the instructions, that isn’t really the spirit of FIRST. Its like building a Lego set.
For our team, it’s really helpful to see the kitbot, all of the Ri3D bots and the REV Starterbot. They’re all sources of good ideas. But it’s really up to you to decide whether you find this valuable.
But also recognize that this offering is intended to showcase a lot of the REV products in a way that allows teams to see interesting uses of those components. In that way, yeah, of course, it’s a bit lego-ish. No custom parts on that robot at all – the point is to show how you can build an entire robot using only REV components.
It’s also interesting to look at and ask “why did they do that?” For example – you see that one piece of aluminum with orange tape on it. Why? Why is there a separate angled piece of aluminum for the motor that drives the intake? (Why does the CAD have Vortexs on the swerves, but NEOs in the photo? Was it so they could ship four more Vortexes to their customers?)
Rev put together a really sweet building system for making robot designs faster. There are a ton of holes everywhere so teams can build and iterate faster. I think a lot of teams should consider using the Rev ion system generally.
Now what I think you wanted to know is “why should you use the REV starter bot? - which uses REV ion parts”.
They showed from the reveal it has more features that the kitbot. it already has a simple climb, ground intake, speaker shooter, and amp mechanism.
Now what can you do with it. Let’s say your team is programming heavy. Your team could build this, add some sensors/cameras/etc and make some crazy autonomous routine.
If your team has more mechanical/design resources, maybe you can make it shorter? Maybe you can make the “harmony” points. make the shooter variable so you can shoot from multiple locations. Heck, figure out how to make it score in the trap. The ion system is neat, because there are holes everywhere. Adding a mechanism is pretty easy. I think your imagination, budget, and the 125lb weight limit are your only limitations.
It looked like team 112 used the REV starter bot for inspiration 2023, and crafted it into a very capable machine.
There are a ton of resources this season. It’s a pretty fun time to be involved in FIRST.
Edit: better clarified 112’s use of the starter bot.
Hey @anon28692278 I think that many others in this thread gave really great answers. I just wanted to add a few things.
The Kitbot, REV Starterbot, Everybot, etc are all different buildable examples for your team. The REV starterbot is a robot that you could build with limited machining resources and accomplish many of the game’s objectives, but it is far from a perfect robot. It is our hope each year when we take on this challenge that we strike the right balance of designing a robot that could compete as is, but also leave enough head room for improvements that teams can make.
I think it is great that your team is building the FIRST kit bot and you have a vision for how you want to improve it. That is the purpose of that robot.
Basically the only difference between the two robots is where you want to start your journey. With the Kitbot, you get a good shooter that is human loaded, this is a blank slate for any sort of improvement your team can come up with. The REV Starterbot is a more capable robot as it sits, but that means there are less things your team can do to customize the design.
Whatever robot you build, you are asking the right questions and I am sure your team is off to the start of a great season!
Says who? The spirit of FIRST is inspiration, not originality. I know a lot of people who find buying a kit and following the instructions to be a fun and inspiring thing, especially if it means they get to the fun part sooner.
Adding onto this, I know one Rookie team that’s built the kit bot, and they are thrilled to have that! Seems like the mission of FIRST is still present even with kits.
The AMP scoring was a bit of a happy accident after thought. We were able to do it consistently, but it isn’t perfect and is something I would probably work on to improve with this robot. I think mainly this is something we could improve with software as we didn’t spend much time on different modes or tuning speeds for all the situations
We decided to build the physical robot out of NEO because they are in the KOP and have been for several years. Our goal with the the Starter bot is to give people ideas on ways to approach things, and you don’t always need the new thing to build a robot. Both the NEO 1.1 and Vortex can be used interchangeably in this design and that shows in our Onshape release. The NEO + SPARK MAX is also a lower cost option for teams.
Additionally since the Vortex has not become available yet (only pre-orders have been delivered), we wanted to show a robot that could be built right now with things that are available to everyone right now. Building a robot that is made with motors that are not available right now to every team didn’t feel right or responsible.
Just joined CD. When do you think REV will release Build Guide or Code? I really like this design and seems to get the job done. Will be doing some add-ons.
