Hi! I’m Crystal (aka Waffles), an alum from FRC1511.
One of my favorite things to do at competition is eagerly listen to Pit Admin on stand-by with tools, and materials in hand, ready to aid teams in need.
What I’d like to do is essentially form a program called “FIRST Pit Crew!”. It would be made up of any willing volunteers who would provide assistance to teams in their pits after a request has been made via Pit Admin.
The break down of the program entails that the volunteers have “Crew Carts” packed with tools, and materials so everything is “on-hand” for the team in need. Basically a mobile FIRST Tool-Mart! This means we can help teams out with anything from bumpers, to helping create crimp connections, to giving metal stock or plywood.
I’d like to get the opinions of the FIRST community!
I know that teams helping other teams is a part of the FIRST experience at the Regional, and Championship level, but not everyone can always help! I don’t want to take that opportunity away from teams either, but this can be a fail-safe for calls that go unanswered.
It also occurs to me that we have the NASA Machine Shop, but lines are long, materials are limited, and it’s not mobile! Why not lend an extra hand for the small stuff?
That’s basically all I have for right now… I know there will be plenty of pros, and cons about the idea, but any, and all feedback is appreciated!
Personally, I love the idea (And I would love to be in the crew :D)
I have a limited experience in FIRST, so Im not sure if this goes others idea of what a competition should be like, but it sounds awesome.
Also, if you just go to an event (Like you said), no one is going to deny your help if they actually need it. Making it like an actual voulinteer position, I dont know, because this does mean that FIRST has to find a spot for you to place this tools cart and plan for it. Do I think it would be a problem, no, but I dont follow what FIRST decides on a lot of time
This sounds a lot like what the Robodox (599) do at the Los Angeles regional (perhaps San Diego too). Maybe ping them to learn how they run their operations. A huge help to teams.
First off great idea. It’s one of the best things to see students working with students from other teams. I’m glad you’re one of those types of students. It’s why I’m in FIRST as opposed to BatteBots.
Pit Admin does have Spare Parts (not sure about tools) so generally the things teams ask for are pretty specific, that even an extremely veteran team may have. I’m not sure as to the specifics of what Spare Parts are there so I don’t think this really hampers your idea.
I would think it’s just too many tools to organize and it’s way easier to let other teams to help with those requests.
I haven’t observed enough how quickly it takes to get these requests handled, but perhaps the FIRST Pit Crew (no quotes because it’s a real thing now ) could be a group of volunteers that are knowledgeable about teams and know what teams could help out with requests and go seek them out.
Teams are always willing to help but while in the Pit quickly get caught up with their own robot. If someone were to go actually face-to-face ask them then they would jump at lending a tool or a part.
Thoughts?
Tools wise you could always suggest adding some common tools to the Spare Parts station that exists.
Edited Part: Going off of the other two comments, you can develop a network of volunteers that add to the Spare Parts with tools, so that each regional doesn’t have to add the tools to their cost. My current home regional is Midwest and I have some wireless drills and some other tools that I would not mind bringing anywhere I go.
The idea is mostly meant for a Championship level, because is much more high stress than at a regional. (we’re also talking about 400 teams vs the 30-60)
Like said above, a lot of teams are caught up in their own pit do-ings, that they can’t always help out, even if they want too!
Ahh, okay. Well it’s a cool idea on a regional level as well. But yes for Championships, great idea.
I’ll know if I’m coming by the end of this week, so I can give a hand. It’s now a matter of coming up with a list of what should be on the Crew Carts. I’m not particularly sure how to go about getting a list of common requests.
As far as tools go (which we’ll have to work on getting them):
-Cordless drills (and bits)
-Staple Guns
-Soldering Irons
-Pliers
-Crimps/Wire strippers
-Heat guns
-Multimeters
-Hammers
-Screwdrivers
-Nut drivers/Crescent wrenches
-Files (sandpaper)
-Glue gun
-Saws
Essentially something everyone would try to have in their pit.
Woah woah, what about fingers? The programmers have to use something to type with?
That *was *a joke, but have you thought about including some programmers in that? I see a lot of rookie teams with code issues (that they may think is mechanical)
This year was actually the Robodox FIRST Aid Station’s(RFAS) tenth anniversary! As I do not work too much with the RFAS, take my comments on it with a grain of salt because I don’t know if any of my teammates are active on the forums.
We try to run the RFAS at every event we attend, and informally run it when we are not able to formally run it. The RFAS has two major aspects to it: the “table” and the runners. At the “table” we have one or two people with a computer and printer. Teams are directed to the “table” when they are seeking a part or require any kind of assistance. From the table, we log their request and send a runner to our own pit to look for the tool or part. If we do not have it, the runner goes to a well stocked pit to ask around. If the part still isn’t found, the runner will go pit to pit until they find the part. The transaction is logged in the computer once the part is found and handed off to the team. They return the part or tool to the “table” when they are finished where it is marked for return and returned to our team or another team as soon as possible. For basic operation, 4 team members are required, 2 for the “table” and 2 to act as runners. However, when a team requests someone with a specific skillset e.g. programmer, electronic technician, and so forth, we grab someone from the pit to go help the team (I’ve personally programmed around 8 robots, including one in labview and one in java, both of which I have no experience in). If our pit doesn’t have the skillset (java or labview programmer, for instance), we go to another pit that we know has a person of that skill.
However, our biggest influence is often found on the practice day. LA and SD have become saturated with new and newish teams over the past couple years (good thing) who often require a bit of help passing inspection. Team members go to other pits all day long to help and make sure that the other teams pass inspection. In addition to seeing a 'Dox in many pits throughout the day, we usually have a few members and our coach stay late (around 9 at night) to help the final few pass inspection and get on the field.
For our team, it really helps that people start to learn outside of their subsystem and have more than one skillset. Personally, I have found it necessary to learn electronics and pneumatics in addition to programming just so that I can help wherever I can when the time comes.
For the future, we are planning to “franchise” the RFAS in a way so that it can be present at every Southern California regional, and later every California regional because it is extremely helpful to teams. Also, the RFAS has happened to contribute to our award winning streak and contribute to us having the most GP awards in FIRST (I’m unsure if this is still true).
If you want any further clarification, feel free to PM me and I can get you in contact with someone more closely associated with the RFAS.
Jump Drives (personally, I use these a lot to transfer builds of our dashboard to the Driver Station.)
Not to mention, especially with labview, certain VIs could be considered tools, such as a VI for making a toggle control or putting a deadzone on a controller axis.
CRypotnite (624) has a small part of their team which goes around the pit doing “outreach” to other teams. They have made a couple small tool bags to use during this. During Alamo, I know the Outreach members assisted many team, having tools required that the helped team didn’t have. It is a great success, showing Gracious Professionalism. As I have heard a couple CRyptonite members say, “it’s important that all the robots get on the field, that’s what FIRST is about.”
I know from past experience that Team Titanium (1986) has a bin full of nuts and bolts, brought specifically to help other team.
Outreach, the ultimate display of Gracious Professionalism.
I love the idea, unfortunately I think my team is not in a good position to offer help. We travel by plane to the competition so transporting tools is such a great issue. At the championship in 2011 we had some problems because we needed some power tools that we could not take with us in the plane. I think your idea is excellent and it will help many foreign teams that are not able to bring the whole workshop with them.
Are you worried that it would it might get in the way? Between queuing robots and spectators it can get cramped down there.
Or on the flip side do you think this could help eliminate some of the congestion by keeping team members in their pits and having you come to them instead?
Sorry to derail this topic, but i felt the need for a one-and-done comment. As a student who has competed in both FIRST and BattleBots, I can assure you that things like this happen at every BattleBots event, and while ‘Gracious Professionalism’ takes many different forms, it is still prevelant throughout the competition. FIRST and BattleBots encourage and idealize very similar goals.
Many teams have programs that send their students out to help other teams. MOE 365 has had a program called MOEbile Pit, where selected students are given the job* of staying in the pit area, looking for teams that are struggling and need help. They have special tool belts printed with MOEbile Pit. It’s a coveted position to be selected for this and many of the students have great memories of getting a team back into the competition who had given up.
At Championship however we have found that there is less for them to do. The vast majority of teams don’t need much help there. And when they do, help is usually immediately offered by their pit neighbors.
(*Every student on MOE has a job at competitions - pit, scout, strategist, MOEbile pit, ambassador, etc. They only time you will see a large number of MOE students in the stnads is when the robot is on the field).
At the Ontario events this year, there were official FIRST Tech Support crews made up of volunteers from the veteran teams who attended. Teams and inspectors could request help from members of this crew throughout the day. I did a shift on the crew on Thursday morning and managed to get some DSes updated, radio firmwares reflashed, and a few cRIOs reimaged.
A lot of veteran teams do this anyways, but it was nice to formalize the process. There was a centralized desk beside the radio station and inspection station that any team or inspector could go to for assistance to solve an issue. It was nice for inspectors especially, as they could focus on inspecting, rather than fixing all the problems they uncovered.
I highly recommend the setup if you have the experienced volunteers available.
) could be a group of volunteers that are knowledgeable about teams and know what teams could help out with requests and go seek them out.