I just want to introduce myself. My name is Brian Hagan and I am starting a rookie team in Mount Vernon, Indiana. Any advice as we get started is welcomed! FRC 9453
Brian Hagan
MSD Mount Vernon
1000 West Fourth Street
Mount Vernon, IN 47620
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Robot design:
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Keep your robot design simple. Avoid over-engineering or adding unnecessary components. Start with a basic design and refine it as you go.
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Think about weight and balance. A robot that’s too heavy or imbalanced can be difficult to control. Aim for a light and balanced design.
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Test, test, test. Before the competition, test your robot thoroughly to identify and fix any issues. Practice driving, scoring, and maneuvering around obstacles.
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Prioritize reliability over complexity. A robot that consistently performs its tasks is better than one that can do a lot but breaks down frequently.
Resources:
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The FIRST website is your friend. Check out the wealth of resources on the FIRST website, including rules, guides, and resources for everything from robot design to team management.
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Reach out online. Look at CD and discord severs where teams can share ideas, ask questions, and offer support to one another.
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Get social. Follow FIRST and your local FRC organization on social media for updates, announcements, and a sense of community with other FRC teams.
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Attend virtual events. Participate in webinars, workshops, and virtual events hosted by FIRST and other organizations to stay informed and connected.
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Utilize mentors. Take advantage of mentors - experienced individuals who can provide guidance, support, and help troubleshoot problems.
Learning from failure:
You’re going to get a lot of advice about avoiding failure, but failure is an inevitable part of the FIRST Robotics experience. But it doesn’t have to be a negative thing. In fact, it can be a valuable learning opportunity.
When a team fails, it presents an opportunity to analyze what went wrong, identify areas for improvement, and develop new strategies. By doing so, teams can become stronger, more innovative, and more resilient.
But it’s not just about the technical aspects of failure. It’s also important to cultivate a positive team culture around failure. Encourage members to embrace mistakes and learn from them, rather than feeling ashamed or discouraged. Celebrate progress, not just success.
Good fundraising is the last thing I would like to mention. Robotics teams can’t run without money after all. Write out a business plan and a budget for the 2024 build season ASAP. Also make a sponsorship packet, that will really help when approaching businesses or companies you are hoping to get money from. FRC adds up in terms of financial costs.
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My best advice to rookies is to set realistic goals. When you watch the kickoff video and see a ton of different ways robots can score points, it can be very overwhelming for rookies to figure out what would be achievable yet also competitive enough to be worthwhile.
Depending on your resources (mentor to student ratio and how many hours/week you meet are the big ones), you will likely find it challenging just to build a drivetrain that consistently drives smoothly and doesn’t break down. If your robot can:
- Drive in every match without your drivetrain ever breaking down, stalling, etc
- Complete the simplest auton task (usually some form of “drive forward into a specific area of the field”)
- Score any points at all during teleop (such as scoring one type of game piece into the easiest, lowest-point goal)
then you will be a VERY impressive rookie team, and have a decent shot at being chosen for playoffs, in addition to building a very strong foundation for your second year. Don’t fall into the EXTREMELY common trap of trying to build a very ambitious robot with all kinds of scoring mechanisms, running out of time and not finishing any of it, and showing up with a poorly-built drivetrain that only moves in half the matches. I have seen rookie robots made of duct tape and PVC and like one non-drivetrain motor outscore much more experienced teams whose fancy robots broke down on the field or were jerky, shaky, tippy, etc. Have half your team work on getting the Kit of Parts drivetrain running beautifully and reliably, and half your team work on “what’s the easiest scoring task and the simplest possible mechanism that can do that task”.
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You’re about as far from us as possible and still be in Indiana but feel free to visit.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions, anything we can do to help.
Best advice is keep things simple.
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- Use the resources folks make available. check out this years kit bot, as well as the everybot. Good choices for rookie teams.
- check out open alliance threads and other example.
- build simple and build for reliability.
- don’t wait to do your bumpers. They are not terribly difficult but harder than you might think. Recommend the reversible kit from robot promo.
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Welcome to the best little district in FRC, team 9453!!!
Definitely feel free to reach out for any help. We are all the way up in Indy, but it looks like we will both be at the Columbus event week 3! Feel free to stop by our pit and say hi (or if you need a spare part!).
A couple pieces of advice for a rookie team:
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Keep it simple, and narrow your scope. A lot of teams start off by asking “What do we want our robot to do?” This is a good question, but it often leads to a list that includes everything in the game (students are ambitious!) Our first few years we asked the question “What are we NOT going to do?” Everything you can add to this list will help you focus. We tried to put a couple significant items on this list each of our first two years, which really helped us focus and made sure we had time to do the things we really wanted to do. Time is not your friend during build season.
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Use the Kit of Parts Chassis. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Your drivetrain alone cannot win you matches, but it can definitely cause you to lose matches. Get it built ASAP and move on to other challenges. Your rookie year is not the year to get fancy with this.
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Consider doing a “mock kickoff” sometime in the next few months. Take an old game and read through the rules (this will also make the rulebook less intimidating on day 1). Have your team discuss which game objectives you would prioritize if that game were released today. See if you can research some rookie level bots that thrived that year. Did you pick the right objectives? What made them successful?
Definitely feel free to reach out if you have any questions. My team (7457) will be at your first event (Columbus), and would be happy to help if we can. We usually try to team up with other teams for scouting at events, so if you have any interest in learning more about scouting and could contribute a few students to help, we would love to collaborate.
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Welcome! The FIRST Indiana Robotics (FIN) community is here to support you! While 461 will not be at either of your qualifiers this year you’ll still see many of our mentors as volunteers at your events. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or need any support.
If you find yourselves in the Greater Lafayette area to visit Purdue (or otherwise), let us know and we’d be happy to give you a tour of our shop. We’re just a few blocks away from campus.
Good luck this year!
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Given that 5493 is a veteran team in Colorado, I suspect you meant to write 9453.
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Hello,
Welcome to FRC. Our biggest advice is…
- Create a test bed and drive base as soon as possible. If you cannot do so until after kickoff, that is okay, but will compress your build season
- Also, as you build anything, pay attention to the rules. We had to rewire our entire robot at our first event because all our 12volt cable was the wrong color.
- Make your bumpers (and bumper attachment mechanism) early <-We keep re-learning this one
I wish you a wonderful season
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