As we near the end of the build season, I am curious as to how heavy others robot are? We have been shocked at how little ours weighs in at currently (we are sitting at just under 90lbs at the moment). This is not something that we are used to by any means. Remembering back to last year where at North Bay, if you blew on the robot it was overweight. Is being fairly underweight this year something a lot of teams are finding this year, or is it just us? Obviously we’ll put on a few more pounds, but I don’t see us going above 105 for our first competition (before we weigh it down that is).
We’re just around 90 lbs right now, but expect to get up to around 110 by the end of the day on Saturday.
OP, I think what you’re noticing is also a side effect of coming off of a year with significantly larger robots. Sure, the 120" frame perimeter isn’t really that much smaller, but with extension limits and whatnot, and with so many teams going for the low bar, robots will be smaller, and in turn will weigh less.
Our practice bot went on the scale a while back with as much stuff as we thought was going on it.
Let’s leave it at one of the topics of discussion over the next day or so was places to lose some weight. Not over yet, but close enough to be a bit nervous.
I guessed…but I suppose we ought to weigh it, one of these days! Although we haven’t put much weight into the robot. A couple pieces of 3/8" plywood, a miniCIM, a P71/775, two pieces of ABS pipe, a little plywood for electronics, a few sections of 2x4, and a little bit of skinny steel strap…all this added to a kit chassis with two extra kit wheels. Not the makings of a heavyweight.
We were well under 80# at our last build session, excluding battery and bumpers. This did not include our top shielding, including the portcullis/low bar deflectors which should be about 5#. Several of the parts were not attached, just placed on top, so a few more fasteners and some wire will be added. We did include a solid aluminum belly pan. I marked under 90#. We’ll see how we drive over the defenses with all the manipulators and bumpers in place before we decide if we’ll run light or add weight down low, and possibly change our gearing to be faster. (We’re currently at 5.6 fps adjusted, with easy options to go to 8.4, 8.5, or 12.7).
Edit: Looking at the poll results, this does line up with what you’d expect from limbo capable, high ground clearance robots, especially if they’re going to be narrow enough to challenge or scale the tower. Many teams can only pack so much gear into that window.
Both the robots I’ve worked on this season are insanely lightweight. Perses was about 73lbs without battery or bumpers, and 2667’s robot is looking like it might be even lighter. We’ve even started talking about testing adding weights in different locations to help get through obstacles and avoid tipping.
We are looking like we will be right about 80# without battery and bumpers. Right now we will be fairly back heavy so we will likely add 30# of steel ballast. Ideally we will use that weight to add a climber between events.
I foresee us being right at 120 lbs without bumpers. We have many systems to implement and they are all relatively heavy. Storm is always right at the weight limit, so we’ll see where we end up. We may have to shave off some metal at the end of week 6.
We’re sitting at 90lbs right now also, all in except a scaling mechanism which is in progress.
I am also shocked at how light we are this season, definitely not something I’m used to.
Yes last year was a year for heavyweight champions however I was not referring to last year alone. I’ve been around FRC for 4 years (this being my 5th) and my team has been around for 8 (maybe 9? cant recall). Every single year we have struggled with weight immensely, so being 30lbs under at the moment, with prospects of being 20lbs under is a massive shock to us.
We are currently 81lbs sans electronics and scaling mechanism. This is the lightest we’ve ever been and we’re pretty excited about it!
4607 is under 90lbs right now… but once we have our manipulators on we will be pushing 110lbs.
Don’t you know it’s impolite to ask a lady her weight?
…The robot is a she now.
To answer your question though, we’ve only hit about 65 lbs at last weigh, though that may have been before the electronics installed, and there have been a few minor additions, but even still it’s not likely to get much heavier unless we add weight on purpose.