Our team(996 Casa Grande, Arizona) has been small for the 2009 season(probably around ten members) but our team has been hit especially hard for next year. Just about everyone who knew anything about building a robot(all but programming) graduated leaving only two really active members, me who can cover the programming, another member who deals with the money, and a teacher, all whose rookie year was 2009. I am the president of the club now and I have the daunting task of building our team up again. We don’t have anyone with any knowledge of anything mechanical or electrical. We don’t have any mentors. I’m at a complete loss. I’ve planned to bring the robot out during rush week(a week where clubs sit out during lunch and try to get people to join) and I hope we can raise our numbers.
I have so many questions to ask It would probably be best if you just gave me the advice you think would be important for me to know.
It never hurts to try to put your emotions and feelings of being overwhelmed into words. It can clarify and bring things into focus for you. You have made a good start by saying that you “have so many questions…” so -
go ahead - write them down. Then read them and add to them or see how many you can answer or give options to. Scratch some off if you want. Prioritize them. It’s your list of questions and it is helping you think and clear a way to understanding and problem solving. When you have a list (which is never-ending on a robotics team. ), send it to the mentors that Allan has referred you to, along with an explanation of your situation. They will help you. Really.
And… as an extra bonus, share from your list of questions with us if you would like. It would do 2 things - offer an opportunity for members of the CD community to offer insight and it would also give us an opportunity to think about your questions, your situation, and put our thoughts into words.
The idea of taking your robot out during lunch is excellent. Make sure you go through all the proper channels to do that, if there are any.
Best thing you’ve done so far is come on here and set a goal.
As Jane said, demo’ing a past robot is a great idea. Definitely contact 842 first of all, personal guidance is awesome from a team like theirs. Don’t be afraid to look to your middle school for members either, they have more potential than high schoolers give them credit for.
Keep at it, if there’s specific stuff you need, just post it up here.
It was a good idea listing out my questions. After doing so I realized that my problem wasn’t so big and that it is quite manageable with the right resources. A lot of these questions I have found were already answered elsewhere.
here are some questions I came up with:
-What would be the best method of teaching everything the newcomers will need to know before build season(ex: how often do you think we should meet to get a good handle of things before season starts?)
-Do you think java would be a good language to use, especially when teaching people who most likely have no experience with programming or should I go with Labview.
-How would I go about finding mentors?
I think team 842 helping us would be a great idea. I’m sure that would be very helpful to our team.
Purchase a Lego MindStorms kit. ~$250
Buy a tackle box with about 40 compartments, I found a great one:
Flambeau 7-tray Hip Roof Box model 2059. ~$30
Have students segregate the pieces and organize them. This is an important skill when building robots, organizing your work from nuts and bolts through components. It also teaches them to clean up their work area when they are finished.
Have new students sit down in pairs and build small robots.
The MindStorms kits can be programmed to perform maneuvers and include sensors that respond to inputs. The programming is visual and similar to FRC. The instructions included in the kit are visual and appropriate.
This activity is an appropriate microcosm of the build season.
Watch the new members closely and you will see where their natural strengths lie. You can also use it to teach all students about problem solving methods and processes.
Set specific tasks that increase in difficulty:
Drive forward 3 feet and stop.
Drive in a circle and stop.
Drive in a square path and stop.
Drive until touch sensor is activated and drive backwards to the start position.
Increase the level of complexity…as you see fit.
Perform these tasks first, so you can appreciate what they will be experiencing.
Consider meeting once a week in the fall. Focus on marketing / fundraising and engineering principles. After training students in MindStorms, ask them to explain how your previous robot performed its tasks.
You can practice brainstorming with previous games.
“The darkest hour is just before the dawn”
~lots of folks
is there a college near your school? any science, technology, or engineering students will be a great help. also, find out if anyone’s parents work in any of those fields, or any who have experience fabricating. they maybe willing to lend a few hours each week, and it could get their kids interested too
Another great avenue is to open your local yellow pages and search for any and all engineering, technology, marketing, and business related companies in the area. Contact such companies carefully and wisely. Oh and accountants are a bunch of help too, in their free time.
Where have you built your robot in past seasons? Your school? A sponsor’s location?
Aside from contact other teams in your area, especially 842’s invitation above, you may want to work with your school to build a good foundation for the future. Having a solid relationship with your school will be one of the best things you can do to help your program because of the resources they have at their disposal (workspace, teachers, materials, equipment, maybe even funding).
I’ve found that the best way to teach new comers is to have them work alongside with veterans, but that’s where your team lacks. I would recommend that you guys strip down bots and talk about the function. There are several resources online (WPI, CD, TBA) which will give you resources to teach your new members all sorts of skills.
I would recommend at least once a week.
This is really in the eye of the beholder. For me, personally, I find Java to be better in the scope of teaching. The material available online for Java is unparalleled. You want to think long term and wonder “next year, when I’m not here, will they be able to handle it”. (which is one thing my team isn’t really putting on priority:P)
I find that mentors are the most effective when he/she has a want to put effort into whatever they have. Encourage parents, neighbors, and even sponsors to come out and lend a hand. Offer companies a higher level of sponsorship if they chose to come out and help. You’ll find that there are a lot of people who are just waiting to help you.
Don’t worry about it too much. As long you have a clear heading, you’ll get where you want to go. I would recommend you get in touch with a local team. They might help you expand your base, and who knows, maybe you’ll have gained a new competition partner.
First of all, don’t worry your team certainly isn’t “in ruins” just in a tough situation that many teams will have to go through. Every team is going to lose a “batch” that seemed to be the ones that always knew what was going on, and its yours and the other active member’s job to build the team as veterans. I could write a lengthy post to answer your questions, but instead I’m going to link you to valid discussions for each of them because the ChiefDelphi community can pretty much answer every robotics related question ever.
-What would be the best method of teaching everything the newcomers will need to know before build season(ex: how often do you think we should meet to get a good handle of things before season starts?)
-Do you think java would be a good language to use, especially when teaching people who most likely have no experience with programming or should I go with Labview.
Can’t touch on that personally, but this thread is helpful regarding Java Java Programming
-How would I go about finding mentors?
RoboMom had some great advice in this thread including:
I would much rather suggest having all of the students buy Vex kits rather than Lego kits. It’s a much more accurate-to-FRC way to train new members in the ways of competitive robotics, programming, subsystems, etc.
Thanks everyone for the advice. It all helps a lot. After posting here and receiving all the help and advice the problem doesn’t seem as bad. I’m sure that with good recruiting and with help from mentors, other teams, and Chief Delphi we will have a successful year.
I heard tell that an ice cream float does wonders for celebrating mind over matter, clear thinking, and asking for help and being gracious upon receiving it.
The rumor is that a coke float is the best with some of it dribbling down the sides of the tall glass and making a happy mess, but some people for some reason insist that root beer floats rule. I’m not so sure about that, myself, but I definitely trust the coke float rumor. With 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream.
Good luck with the team, they are lucky to have you,
Jane
I’ll join the consensus that meeting once a week is a good practice in the fall. You may want to also plan some extra times for some focus areas, like special time for programmers, animation, web page development, cad workshops, that sort of thing.
We also have mock build season sessions where we simulate the whole build season from game release through prototyping in an evening or two. That helps the team get the whole picture a little better as well as understand the urgency and connections between the different tasks.
Don’t forget about team building, especially for a rebuilding year! You need to plan for activities that pull you into a cohesive unit so that when the stress of build season hits you don’t fracture!
), send it to the mentors that Allan has referred you to, along with an explanation of your situation. They will help you. Really.
