I’m part of a rookie team that will be starting next year and I was wondering what we can do as a team, to train during the fall pre-season?
Georgia has a great off season event that I am sure you are aware of called GRITS along with one in SC called SCRIW. If your new rookie team was able to get some parts together and build a robot to compete at these events than you would be leaps and bounds over rookies building their first robot in 2013.
If you’re not able to cobble together a working robot on your own (a tall order for a pre-rookie team) perhaps you can coordinate with another team and use its practice robot.
Some ideas here:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2585
Contact your FIRST Senior Mentor. List here: http://www.usfirst.org/community/volunteers/first-senior-mentor-program
From my experience in starting two rookie teams:
Find experienced people to work with. Latch onto another team if you can. It’ll be a smoother season if you have somebody there to pick you up when you stumble. Spend some time networking and finding as much financial and technical support as you can.
And once the season starts:
Build the kit-bot ASAP. You’ll be able to change it later, but the support given around the kit bot lets you give students amazing experience in a short period of time. I actually recommend that all teams throw the kitbot together as soon as they get it. For some teams it’s the final product and for others it’s just a platform to build off of, but it’s rarely beneficial (as far as I’ve seen) to let it go unfinished for any team.
I’ve personally found this to work well comparing the two teams I’ve worked with. Results may vary 
If you are planning to have students do CAD, be sure to train them before the season starts. Even a basic level of training is significantly better than none at all. Do the same for any tools you have. Another idea to consider is having the students work on an actual robot, be it FRC or a different competition, such as VEX. An FRC robot may be too ambitious a preseason project but any level of robotics experience helps.
Other valuable things to do during the offseason include securing funding and mentor support. Mentors of any sort are very valuable to teams as in any sort of sponsorship. If you can apply for grants from groups like NASA when they are available.
Also, find a veteran team who is in your area either by using the regional director or contacting the team directly. 99% of the time these teams will be more than willing to help.
From what I know about our rookie year, we started with several FTC teams. FTC kickoffs in September, but competitions go from November to March, so it may interfere with your FRC season. It’ll help you guys get a feel for the basics of the mechanical and software parts, and will also help teach Gracious Professionalism™ and Coopertition™ at the competitions.
We feel that FTC is a great tool for preparing our rookies for the FRC season, which is why we continue to have FTC teams every year.
Hello there,
On 1261 we do VEX during the fall. You may not have the resources/desire to do this, but it keeps people light on their feet, gets the new members used to some intro robotics and helps break the ice without a lot of tension.
Since you’re a rookie team, perhaps it might be a good idea to get some experience with the KOP, the motors, gearboxes, etc. I noticed you’re listed as team 1771, and I’m sure 1771 has a spare KOP that they can lend you. Try doing some FRC building and learning so you’re not caught off-guard come Spring.
Is this indicative of a 1771+rookie alliance?
- Sunny G.
Maybe a 1311 alliance. Kell Robotics is the Longhorns !!
Who knows.
We plan to hold 8 meetings in september and october on Friday nights from 3 to 7pm, during which we “try out” conditionally-accepted members of the team (everyone, even existing members, will be conditionally accepted to the new team) and determine whether or not they should carry on with us into the later months. We’ll do tools, Vex, CAD, programming, electrical, etc. Then in November and December, we’ll get really detailed in our preparation and training for all members moving forward.
Our summer/fall program traditionally is to pick a game none of our current students have been involved in and run a mock kick off.
The Flaming Chickens design and hosts the fall BunnyBots competition every year in our Portland, OR area (although we’ve had teams come from other states as well). Here is a link to last year’s rules (http://www.oregonfirst.org/events/bunnybot/bunnybot-2011/), and also some video clips of the final matches from last year (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gX5szIwyvQ) so you can get a better idea of what it is we do. Last fall we had 22 teams participate, which is an exciting increase from it’s 3-robot start 5 years ago.
BunnyBots is basically a way for rookie teams (and new members on established teams, and also veteran members on established teams - basically anyone!) to get more experience building a fully-functional FRC-style robot for a pre-season competition in a more relaxed setting and a longer time span: about 12 weeks. That way everyone has more experience to contribute during build season; it’s also just a fantastic amount of fun. 1540 alumni design the rules every year, and they’re always great for both rookie teams and veteran teams to explore (e.g. last year was a mashup of capture the flag with stuffed animal bunnies, and Nerf dart tag additionally).
Right now the only BunnyBots around is that which we host in Portland, but it would be awesome if it got started up in other places as well. It’s a significant endeavor, but it’s immensely rewarding for us and the teams that participate, and we’ve designed it so it’s fairly easy to replicate (we hope) with the right planning.
So let me know if that sounds interesting and/or if you have any questions, and I and all of 1540 would be happy to help spread the BunnyBots love.
Actually we are Lanier High School, a new school that just opened in 2010 and we decided to partner with North Gwinnett as a way to get acclimated with the FRC competition. Now next year we are planning on starting our own rookie team, but we will still be maintaining a good relationship with North.
Please send me a message to [email protected] and I will make sure the RD has you on the rookie list for next year.
It is important that you do so in case there is any funding floating around for rookies !!!
Ed
Ooooh! Let me join in on this 1311+1771+rookie uber alliance!!:yikes:
back on to the topic at hand.
Simbotics has a lot of resources on their site www.simbotics.org/resources
for rookie teams. Also, WPI Think Tank and the Chief Delphi papers are GREAT resources for students and mentors to learn from. When I did a fall training sort of program with my team (granted they didn’t listen…::ouch:: ), I found a lot of presentations on drivetrains, arms, manipulators, and strategy. A lot of them are at the rookie level.
I agree with everyone here that you should use the Kitbot (though with steroids, as explained by Team 1114), but try to build one before the season starts, and what I like to do as an exercise is to design a robot for a previous year’s game. Design it completely, and if resources permit, fabricate it. This allows the team to go through the full design process once before the season starts, and allows the team to gain experience designing a robot and being hands on with it.
Very well put. This is exactly why us Flaming Chickens (and I assume many other local teams that participate) appreciate our BunnyBots event so much. A build season and competition experience prior to FRC is really beneficial to teams of all levels, from rookies learning the ropes to veterans testing out crazy prototype ideas that just might work (and often do!).
I’d love to see more multi-team, off-season events that are more than just taking robots from previous years’ competitions for some more driving experience. I feel that actually going through a whole FRC-style design, fabrication, programming, testing, fixing (etc…), and competition process for a unique game before FRC build season really makes a positive impact on a team’s performance and, more importantly, their students’ FIRST experience.
(Mentor Mike Reilly, formerly of 1771 responding)
Thanks Simbotics! Your world-famous status definitely lends legitimacy to your suggestions!
From a bare-bones rookie perspective, building a previous year will be a challenge. We have a drill, a hacksaw, some screwdrivers. I agree with you when we have more available. Most likely we’re going to go with a blend of what you’re proposing, with a low target (great bots cost great amounts of money). In other words, an “awesome third bot” approach first year.
What I would really like to do is build the most essential skills. I can personally teach Inventor and programming, and we’ll most likely share ideas with 1771 and any other teams. Where I lack are the hands-on skills to practice, like tapping holes, cutting, basic part recognition like spacers, etc.
Thanks for the ideas, keep them coming, I’m finding there is a lot of experience out there, but we can do more for the low-income teams to get ready, and I’d like to make that happen for us and others to follow.
I think people at your standard tool stores should know how to use them, so they can always teach some people.
As for fabricating some things, Georgia Tech RoboJackets have a shop with a lot of great tools like Mills, lathes, CNC’s and even a waterjet. I know I would love to use the 1002 CNC Mill or Jet Mill or Lathe to fabricate some parts if you need them 
.
How about build a core group from now till the end of the school year.
And then let’s make some plans for them to come to the ‘IC’ in Kennesaw for a couple of days during the summer. We will keep them busy. That is why we built the ‘IC’.
We are going to have other teams in doing the same thing during the summer and fall.
We have the stuff. You get the students.
Ed