I am Peter Chatzigianis and a member of the recrue team 6622, stan robotix. Since we are a recrue team our only robot is the one we have built for this year’s competition. Our pilots wished to have more training time however the construction and programmation need the robot too… In addition the robot needs to be packed away within a week time.
In short we were wandering if a team would be fine lending us, for a price, one of their old robot that they are not using.
I would start by checking with local teams in your area, that will be by far the easiest solution. There are also differences in items like drive train, robot weight, and dimensions (long or wide, tall or short) that can make big differences in how a robot handles.
Also if you aren’t able to find a local team whom will lend you a robot to practice on, I would sit everyone on the team down and discuss strategy, scenarios, talk about controls and how the drive team wants the controls situated i.e: tank drive, joystick drive, d-pad, etc. Then as soon as you get to competition GET INSPECTED then you have all day to practice, tweak, and talk to other teams who I am sure will gladly help you out.
Excuse me i have badly expressed myself:
Our robot needs to be packed away within one week time because of FIRST deadline (We are not intending to ship from different countries).
Well thank you all for these quick replies. We are probably not going to buy another KOP chassis. However we will look at local teams. If any are in Montréal and wouldn’t mind lending us their robot could you please reply, thanks in advance.
No I think some the people are saying the alot of teams aren’t going to ship “their” robot across the country to help out or don’t have the resources to. YOur best bet would be to ask a local team.
Being a competitive robot operator is more than just mechanics developed through driving the robot. It takes a lot of visual awareness, critical and rapid thinking, a tad bit of athleticism, and if you don’t mind the pun. It takes a lot of drive.
Everyone wants to drive a robot, but only a few have the competitive edge for it. I like to use E-Sports as an example. Anyone can play video games, but pro E-sports players are in the top 1 percent because they had the drive to not only master the mechanics, but to learn all the auxiliary parts of the game as well.
I would like to make a suggestion to give you more time with your robot, legally, on the competition field. It’s actually pretty simple.
First, bag and tag your robot at the proper time, with the proper paperwork (Lockup Form). (You were already planning to do this, I’m sure.)
Then, show up at the event for early load-in (if the event has it). That will allow you some time to check paperwork, bring in tools, and “settle in”.
And then… As soon as the pits officially open and you can open the bag, open it and call for an inspection. The Lead Robot Inspector will hopefully try to give you an experienced inspector who can find all the rules problems you may have and help you fix them quickly. (At a minimum, get a safety inspection so you can make your practice matches.) Go through inspection.
Once you’ve passed inspection and have the sticker to show it, use the event’s “Filler Line”–the queuing staff will show you where it is–to get on the field and practice as many times as your batteries will allow when you don’t have a scheduled match. This could double your practice time.
