Build Season '11 Resolutions

FIRST General Forum
1

Does anyone out there have any “resolutions” for the build season that they or their team does?

This may shock some of you but for the last few build seasons (since '09), I have done it caffeine free. No soda, no coffee, etc. I do cheat with an occasional Excedrin to deal with headaches. I find that without caffeine gives me more energy which in turn helps me deal with all the fires I have to put out during build. I will do it again this year.

In 2009, most of the adult (male) mentors grew “Build Beards”. No shaving for the entire build season. Many attribute it to getting to Einstein that year. Who knows if we will do it again.

So let’s hear it. What have you done in the past and what do you plan to do this year? (I’m not looking for robot specific resolutions like have a drive train by week 2, document season, etc).

2

For me and my fellow Programmer to get along better.

And for both of us to stop being territorial. (AKA instead of I do Autonomous you do Teleop, we both do it all together)

3

I remember one year 174 vowed to work on schedule. We printed out a giant calendar and marked it all up. That year we did work so fluid and with ease we were two weeks ahead rather than the usual “have to finish the bot at the regional”

4

I resolve to listen to myself when I tell students that scissor lifts are a bad idea. No matter how clever a strategy they might enable.

I further resolve to limit game strategies to at most 2 tasks that depend on each other for the strategy to work. Strategies requiring 3 or more successes to give you an actual chance of winning are clearly insane. See Harry Pttoer and the Methods of Rationality for more information.

5

#1 Have a student fully assist me in program management this year.
#2 have robot #1 in programmings hands at the end of week 4!
#3 Not cut my hair so the students have something to play with at regionals.

6

I promise to not make a single mouse click that modifies the robot CAD on my own laptop. For once, we have students who are great at CAD, so they can do it.

We will resolve ourselves to doing the simplest mechanical robot that we possibly can. In Breakaway terms, we would be an offensive-zone robot that pushes balls into the goals primarily, with a fast hanger for endgame. This would have given us time to mess with center of gravity, Mecanum programming feedback, and driver control optimizations (even with a week of snow).

I will resolve myself to kick the mentors in their metaphorical butts until we have a Dean’s List submission put together.

7

I write this rule on the board every year during our design discussions. It’s a Bobcat Cardinal Rule.

8

1: better time management and less goofing off
2: pay attention to robot rules (limits, restrictions etc)
3: promote more teamwork and cooperation. Its hard to get things done when team mates hate each other.
4: Inspire students to be better role models, increase GP