We keep ours alive as long as possible… but it really doesn’t make sense to spend all that money on extra motors, gear boxes, or electrical components (aka unmodified COTS items).
We take our past robots apart after about four years, but only when the robot either takes up too much space in the shop or when it simply doesn’t work anymore. One of our robots (from the innertube year) we converted into a gutter cleaner. It works rather nicely, actually. Unfortunately, it is also a rather nice driveway-dirtier, because all the stuff it blows out of the gutter has to go somewhere.
And as it happens, re-using a non-COTS assembly (such as a drive train) is not permitted.
Our 2002, 2003 and 2004 robot were always used for spare parts. The 2005 robot was the first robot we tried to keep intact because we considered it our first successful robot. After that one, we knew we had no intention of keeping the 02,03 and 04 robots and completely dismantled them. However, some miscommunication with younger students lead to some slightly valuable parts accidently being thrown away (whoops).
Now after four years, the 05 bot has slowly lost parts, so were stripping it down to its frame and giving away its custom parts and frame to the students who built it (now alumni) as mementos. By the way, any 766 alumni reading this, message me to get your memento.
So the functioning robots we have go back to 2006. You can imagine, our closet is very full but I think its a lot more fun and educational to have these robots. We are very excited that we get to play with 5 robots this summer. But If we need the parts, one more bot will be on the chopping block.
We try to keep them in the best shape we can. We do harvest for parts as needed, though preferably in a way we can put them back easily. Our rookie Triple Play bot is totally gone (that was before we made the policy), Aim High is still in decent mechanical condition, though we need to rewire it. Rack 'n Roll is almost fully functional, as is Overdrive. Lunacy hasn’t changed at all. They’re actually pretty useful.
Training: Lunacy has a 6wd wide drivetrain with a deployable 7th wheel. Rack 'n Roll has a standard but decent 4wd, and Breakaway has an awesome 4wd independent pivot. It’s good to have diversity, so depending on what we pick next year, drivers can practice if they get the chance.
Programming: The pivot drive is basically a bottomless well of programming opportunities (albeit and difficulties). It’s also virtually impossible to test without an actual FRC pivot bot. We won’t be getting rid of it any time soon.
Test Beds: We used the Rack 'n Roll bot as a test bed for the cRio last year, which was exceedingly helpful.
**Demos: **(Not necessarily for sponsors who see it every year, but for community outreach, etc.) Some bots demo better than others. Overdrive is usually a pain with the big ball, and depending on the venue Aim High can be too…well, high. Rack 'n Roll is great in almost every situation, and Lunacy is a crowd pleaser with kids (they like trying to catch the balls). It’s also good to show how diverse the robots and games are, if you can bring both.
That said, we don’t really have a space problem…currently…in our shop. We made up storage shelves which let us stack them on top of each other, so the footprint’s actually pretty small. In 10 years? Maybe we’ll get a little more discerning.
our rookie was cannibalized fer the overdrive one, which was, in turn was cannibalized fer our lunacy, which is still intact. we try to avoid cannibalizing as much as possible, and the frames from the first 2 are bolted to each other via sum 80/20 to make the chassis fer our t-shirt cannon knightbot, and the manipulator from 07 is still around somewhere.
2009’s robots are great for showing off because:
“This robot is great for demonstrations, I can blast little kids in the face with balls… and they Love It!” -Jim
As opposed to 2008 where you need to carry around an overpass.:rolleyes:
But seriously if you’ve got to choose, 2009 is probably the better choice.
Unless you have a Das Boot. But I think that’s just us.
Though seriously, I think the better a robot is, the easier it is to use, the better it’ll really look. I can imagine 2009 robot would be better because most 2008 weren’t really launchers, whereas Lunacy robots had to be (or dumpers, still cool).
Doing demonstrations with our 2008 robot was a huge pain…though 1189’s robot looks nice on a float for a parade 
2009 and 2006 robots are the best for demonstrations, IMO. What makes 2006 bots better (if they aren’t cannibalized yet) is that you don’t have to worry about having either a spare control system to use on it, or switching cRio components between the two robots.
the 2 years I was on the team, I believe we did our best to keep the robots intact, (though we only had a few since we changed schools etc.)
we maybe pulled off different subsystems (intake, shooter etc.) to take a closer look. but the main chassis and whatnot usually stay intact.
I think it was towards the end of 08 we had to disassemble a lot of our robots due to space issues, (we have a small shop behind the drama dept. classroom) so we stripped them all down to basic drive systems and chassis, they are now stacked in a small tower in the corner of our shop.
I know this year we had to take apart the Aim High robot to take a look at how they constructed the roller. it was quite an experience.
We tend to keep our more favorite robots intact, I still think 07, 08, and 09 are still alive (and crippled) but we’ll probably give them 2 or 3 more years till we’ll need to scrap for space.
we have a spare cRIO, so it’s not a problem
and our show-off bot:
http://www.team2052.com/sites/default/files/images/cannon1.preview.jpeg
we tried a mascot bot, but it’s on hold for now, but it was realy only gonna be another knightbot chassis
That is AWESOME! Nice job on the armor.