Pitfalls to avoid when brainstorming the 2011 game and robot

[Chris_Fultz]

Avoid “Not reading the manual” before you start creating a strategy.
Avoid “Designing a robot” before you have an agreed strategy.
Avoid “Not being all together on a strategy” before moving forward with a design.

One key, esspecialy for newer teams, is to understand that the game rule book and design requirements are requirements, not suggestions.

You must fit inside the space requirements.
You must be under the weight requiremets.
You can only use the approved motors, epectronics, wire sizes, etc.

[Peter_Matteson]

Another thing that is not really mentioned here:

Robot orientation.

Every year, 103 creates a, “Long,” robot, or one in which the front of the robot is the shorter side. For some games that requires a lot of game pieces to pick up, this is definitely not ideal. If you look at **every robot on Einstein in 2009, you will notice that they are, “Wide.” **They were the robot that was able to pick up the most balls the fastest, because if you cannot pick up game pieces fast, you cannot possibly score fast.

I hope that for a post season project next year that we can create our first wide bot.

Incorrect, 1(77) out of 12 was a long bot that year. Oddly enough it was the team that said during the concept generation phase of robot design that year, “No widebody has ever made Einstein…”

Wish I was making this up.

[Mike_Soukup]

Incorrect, 1(77) out of 12 was a long bot that year. Oddly enough it was the team that said during the concept generation phase of robot design that year, “No widebody has ever made Einstein…”

Wish I was making this up.

Incorrect as well. This robot looks pretty wide. And so does this one. Is that Einstein I see in the background?

[Cyberphil]

Incorrect, 1(77) out of 12 was a long bot that year. Oddly enough it was the team that said during the concept generation phase of robot design that year, “No widebody has ever made Einstein…”

Wish I was making this up.

Isn’t that quite a twisted fate?

But the main point that I was making is that it is important to take into consideration the orientation, and how each bot will interact, move, and preform with other robots.

Another key thing that many teams did not notice is that a wide wheel base created a much greater rotational force. Because of the greater distance between the pivot point and the wheels, a much greater torque was in effect, making it easier for wide teams to turn. And in that game, the two driving things that killed were speed and agility.

Ahh, another sometimes unseen effect of one design over another. I am sure some teams thought of this, but for most (103 included), that effect was not brought up at all.

[FIRSTgirl675]

Make sure you THOROUGHLY understand the rules of the game before you actually start designing the robot.
It completely stuns me when I see a team show up at an event with a misdesgined robot that is not prepared to compete in this game due to lack of understanding of how to properly pay the game that could have easily been solved by simply taking a day or so to understand how to play the game instead of rushing in with a vague idea of what to do due to the animation.

Agreed. Once the game is released we spend a good three hours or so focusing on learning all the rules and quizzing each other on them before brainstorming starts. It makes it a lot easier in the long run.

[Peter_Matteson]

Incorrect as well. This robot looks pretty wide. And so does this one. Is that Einstein I see in the background?

We found those about 2 weeks into build in '09. :o
We didn’t remember them when the discussion I mentioned took place. Which illustrates the point even better not to fall into the belief that something is the “right” way to do it.