Looking at pictures of robots this year I dont seem to be seeing any minibots or minibot deployments on there robots. How many teams out there actually doing minibots and deploying them?
We are by far. It’s mostly developed. To give out mini bot team incentive. They… Uhh. Don’t know it doesn’t need to be finished by tomorrow. So they’re working really hard.
Two words: Withholding Allowance.
We’ve started looking at the minibot, but haven’t really gotten to building it yet. Likewise, we can’t really build our deployment system until the minibot is finished and we know what sort of attachment points and movement we’ll need.
However, we do know where the minibot will go on the robot, and how the deployment system will end up getting attached to the robot. I guess that’s the benefit of having a 12" high platform on the back of your robot 
We have a mini-bot. It is developed for the most part, though it still has some programming and testing that it needs to get done first. The main problem we are having is deployment. Though we should have that done before Sunday (Shipping Day).
The mini-bot has been a big distraction in building the FIRST Robot. This mini- sucks the life out of teams in resources - both $$$ and labor/time.
I have my concerns over this path by FIRST.
I hope it turns out better than I think it will… I hope I am wrong. FIRST is such a GREAT program.
The minibot is going great, and it was wonderful to be able to spin off a ‘minibot team’ to work with minibot and deployment issues.
I wish they were a bit less limited in terms of what we could do, or a bit more… (No wheels would have been a fun limitation…) …but overall, I say ‘bravo’ on the idea and ‘ouch’ to any team that decides to forgo them.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/5449998914_ae70b648e0.jpg](http://www.flickr.com/photos/wileyb-j/5449998914/)
Ours is deployed on a rack/pinion with a banebot/drill-motor all custom made in-house.
It is clear that you love your waterjet!
How high can you reach … first level?
How does this mini bot deploy? We’re having a heck of a time getting our mini bot deployed off our big bot.
Thanks…inquirin’ minds wanna’ know…:eek:
Mike, I agree with you. Our limited human resources were spread so thin this year that the minibot had slipped to the end of the priority list after the full sized bot. We just got one running this week, and were lucky enough to get good enough results to where we just need to test and tune.
Our deployment system will most likely be some sort of stick though, since we don’t really have weight for much else… :rolleyes:
We’re not even to the test stage yet on minibot. I’m thinking we won’t be done for the bag/tag on the 22nd. If I could find another used CRio, we could keep testing code, etc. for the minibot. I really am not liking this year’s game. The dual development processes have trimmed our team down to about 8 people. The rest have attrited due to AP prep, sports, etc. I’m hoping FIRST will not do a multiple game next year.
not a waterjet! cnc plasma/laser 
it can reach the middle row with ease.
Steve Miller: it sits on the stick at the front, the rack spits out to the pole and the minibot drives off it upon the pole (if that makes sense)
Does your robot actually drive up the pole with ease? My team has had the hardest time getting it to drive up the pole (mostly weight distribution issues).
our team is doing a mini-bot and are very close to being done
My team does have a plan for one, but we haven’t started building it yet. If I’m not mistaken the minibot team did make a prototype out of fichertechnik parts, but it isn’t looking like we will have it done by ship day, so we will have to bring that with us when we go.
Aren’t you so relieved that we don’t have to ship out our mini-bots with our big bots?
We are 
We’ve had a subteam working on it from day one. They have it down to right around 3 seconds up. That activates a switch and it comes down nicely in slow motion by stalling the motors. We’re spiraling up the pole which is something we are working on to get the times down more. Deployment is a simple cylinder activated arm. I’m assuming the lack of posts on CD is due to teams holding their cards close to their vests since teams can still work on their minibots after the ship date???
beautifully. i cant say much about the it but i designed it to be as simple as possible, and simple it is. 
Thats great! Maybe we can see a video at some point? 