Hey everyone,
Last season I started this blog and eventually forgot about it. This time around I hope to be better about it but I would like your input. If you could post some topics you’d like to read about or something for me to write about then please post them in this thread.
Two posts from this year are already up, Enjoy!
Looks great! I look forward to your other posts!
Something I’d like to read about: Your opinion on what the best robots/teams will do, what kind of robots will excel at the game, and which kinds of robots will be on the winning alliance on Einstein.
Awesome! That’s definitely a topic I’d like to write about. Thanks for the input Andrew!
New Post: Mentor vs Student Built
I’ve got to say, your blog posts are on the money! I’ve heard excuses way too many times by members of my team and I’ve heard the “mentor built” excuse, and even the “GM builds all of the Michigan robots” excuse. This is just plain wrong. It’s so wrong on so many levels. How would a company benefit from building a robot for the students? It wouldn’t even pass as a PR stunt! These large sponsors want to inspire the students, so they give access to resources.
Another argument I hear is that our team doesn’t have resources. If we don’t have resources, we need to find sponsors and money so we do! Instead of complaining about having no money, make plans to raise funds! Your team will only be as good as the amount of work you put into it. I’m going to be showing your blog posts to my team in hopes of changing their attitudes to the elite teams.
On your first post of the year (involving being proud of your creation), This is essential. I have encountered people on my team who have nearly given up because things seem to be going bad, or they aren’t going the way they want it to. I always try to hammer into them to stop moping and work towards making our design competitive.
I can relate to this personally. When we did design, Two of our student leaders went against the mindset of 70% of the team and convinced our mentors that meccanum wheels were superior (I don’t know how) to 6 wheel drive (Our strategy called for mobility around the field, scoring in the high goal, and balancing). I was the main proponent of 6 wheel drive. I was absolutely disappointed. It was the same case when 2 of the student leaders decided not to go over the bump. I was extremely irritated for days. The programmers under me wanted to walk out on the team for pushing these decisions through. However much I wanted to protest, they weren’t backing down and the mentors somehow said this was a final decision. we had no choice but to follow the decision. My programming team was about to walk out on the team; I had to calm them down and tell them to work towards making the robot more competitive than some 6 wheel drive robots. In the end, we have to be proud of this creation. We will work towards something that will inspire us and future generations to come. I’ve had to talk to over 7 people who were talking negatively about the team to come back and work hard towards winning and being competitive.
You can’t change the past any. Some people believe they can by moping. There is no changing it. Be proud of your robots. Make a theoretically terrible concept into a winning design.
I liked the bit about your team doing West Coast Drive in the off season.Train yourselves in the off season to bring yourselves up to the best teams. This is the change in culture FIRST wanted to bring about. Through the competitive nature of FRC, we see FRC as a sport; it requires training before the season, being on your top game during the build season, practice before the events, and executing your strategies flawlessly at competition. There’s a reason why my programming team is nearly done without having the robot to test; We used Beta Testing to design algorithms and test them. I developed an autonomous processing algorithm that I designed in the off season and implemented this year. The same occurred with various drive train algorithms and feedback loops.
TL;DR Blog posts are awesome, I will show my team the blog to hopefully stop the negative attitude they have.
Thank you Anupam for your kind response. I’m happy that you are enjoying it. It will inspire me to keep going.