How long do you guys take for planning?
It really depends. Last year it took us almost 2 weeks :yikes:
This year we’re doing better, and should only take 1.5 weeks.
If you’re in Week 3 and nothing has been built, start waving red flags.
Teams that have extensive competition experience can pull off a design in 4-9 days. I recommend that as a rookie team you consider your resource pool of money and experience and design to that in a time frame of no more than 1.5-2 weeks.
Right now, it’s important to grasp your abilities, adapt it to a solid strategy, and design for that.
Depends what you mean by planning. We generally like to have general strategy decided within two days and overall robot concept finished by week one (or whenever prototyping is all done, but ideally it’s about then).
Our rookie year, last year, we took 1 week to figure out what all the KOP items were. We built the kit-bot at a quick build day 1 week in. We then spent another 2 weeks getting our designs set. And built like mad for 3 weeks.
We finished the robot as it was being loaded into a crate.
We’re looking at 1 week for designing this year and are on track.
Our team has a very specific approach to the planning and designing process.
In simplified terms, it looks something like this.
The day of kickoff, we come back to our school after watching the video and meet as a whole team and discuss ideas. We then split into groups of about 5 or 6 people that are predetermined by the captain (myself) and coach according to who will work well together and insuring that each team has at least one person capable of using solidworks.
During the following week, the teams each meet on whatever days they can and come up with a complete design for the robot including a strategy to accompany the shooter/scoring mechanism they’ve devised and use solidworks to model it. They also create a powerpoint presentation explaining the design and suggested strategy and on Friday night the entire team, all the mentors, and any parents and sponsors that are interested in attending come to a presentation where each team is introduced and reviews their proposed design.
The next Saturday morning the whole team meets again and we spend the whole day choosing which design suits our purpose the most and altering it until it’s become finalized. The next week is spent on completing this design with every detail perfected.
I hope this helps. I personally like this system because is gives every student, senior and freshman alike, a chance to share their ideas with their teammates and in the long run more people feel like they’ve had an input on the design of the robot. [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
Organization is the key to success.
Every year there’s something different about the way the team is organized. Over the years, test out the best processes.
But first- you need to work on strategy: defense or offense- how to score, etc.
Then as a team come up with different ideas. The types of shooters, drive trains, etc.
Then- the team leaders (along with mentors) should get together one day decide the pros and cons of each and finalize a couple different choices (or you can have the entire team pick). Start building a couple prototypes to see how all your ideas work. Get the chassis design done ASAP.
^the planning of strategy and design should be done within the first couple days.
Then within the first 1.5 weeks test your prototypes and see what works the best for your strategy. Then finalize the designs and BUILT and get the robot to software ASAP!
Now this is only for building the actual robot, you still need to do a lot of other things such as awards, planning for competitions, marketing, etc.
For the past few years, because of being a team Ford FIRST team, we watch the kick-off with several team Ford First Teams. After that we have a group lunch, followed by a break down of the rules. After breaking into groups for the rules break down, we gather together and come up with viable strategies for that given game year. Sunday we take off due to religious reasons from several team members, but meet directly after school Monday morning. At that point, we review all the possible strategies, and choose a team strategy for that year. Over the next few day we sit down as a team and pool all of our ideas together, then go through each one, one at a time, and set a list of pros and cons for each idea. At that point, we chose our options for that given year and begin design. Week try to have our final design set by mid week one. By mid week two we typically have our frame built and that years given device prototyped. Once that device is perfected, construction begins on the actual device that will be on that robot. Typically by beginning to mid week 5, everything has been constructed and finished and we begin to work out all the kinks and do drive team testing. The last few days are usually spent getting the drive team practice with the robot. That being said, the more practice you can provide your drivers, the better off you’ll be. A well driven robot that does nothing is almost always more effective than a poorly driven robot that does everything.
Planning really depends on the game and what your team is good at doing every year our team has been really strong in offense but feaseable in defense our planning time usually lasts from a week to 2 weeks it just depends on circumstances
Its take my team about 4-5 days to plan our robot and at the same time we are building and welding our base frame. (use a general frame and adapt it to the game) don’t dedicate your whole team to one thing, have several groups working on different things and then have a meeting at the end of every week to get everyone on the same level.
We usually take about a week. All day Saturday, plus a ‘think-at-home’ day Sunday, to figure out what specific ways the game will be played and won. We compare notes on Monday.
Then 2-3 days to list the specific CAPABILITIES the robot must have. (If you can’t start the sentence with “The robot should have the ability to…” then it’s probably not a capability). Those we pick are then sorted in order of absolute importance.
Then for a day or 2 we brainstorm MECHANISMS to accomplish the CAPABILITIES we need. Here, we focus on what we are reasonably able to get done - no dreaming here! Folks go off to make sketches and prototypes (wood, pink foam, cardboard & tape, whatever will show the idea).
We do a formal design review on Saturday. Monday starts building the first robot mechanisms in metal, with some teams not starting that until maybe Wednesday - parts take time to arrive.
My team at this point consists of myself and my sister. Our coach is my dad and our mentor is my brother. We do not have many people in our team and I don’t know who to ask because my friends are on the team at my school. We have our frame, motors, and wheels together. It took us all this week to do that. Is that a reasonable time?
Depends on a few things:
1.) How long have you been working a day (roughly speaking)?
2.) How elaborate are you planning on making your robot?
If you’re planning on an elaborate bot, or you’re putting in three plus hours a night already, you’re probably a bit behind schedule. Considering your team size though, and the fact that you’re a new team, you guys are probably on a good track. Best of luck and don’t be afraid to reach out to your school team for help should you really start to fall behind. I’m sure they’d be more than able and willing to lend a hand.
Peace 