The Golden Rules of Robotics

FIRST General Forum
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Hello everyone,
Can you tell us about the “Golden Rules” that are indispensable in robot mechanics?

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image

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the holy book of beginning strategic design

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Steal from the best invent the rest

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steal from the best invent the rest

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every dof saved is a dof earned

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I was beaten :frowning_face:

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Yeah I posted like a second before you :smiling_face_with_tear:

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I think you should not be limited only to 1678 :hugs:

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Were you really? Or were you stealing from the best?

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The Golden Rules and principles in that presentation were not specifically drummed up by 1678. It says that on the 2nd slide. Its a composition of an incredible amount of lessons learned throughout FRC. It also includes golden rules that I think all teams should live by when designing.

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There’s a difference between a limit and a good place to start :slightly_smiling_face:

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So what are the golden rules of mechanics for you?

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Here’s a slide from Karthik’s presentation

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The simplest solution is often the best solution

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Most real-world things fail in bending or bearing. Sometimes shear. Rarely tension. Never compression.

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The hydraulic press YouTube channel would like a word. /s

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I subscribe to the same school of thought that 1114 and 1678 have done well at promulgating over the years.

  • Simpler is better for a lot of reasons.
  • Do your learning in the off-season.
  • Steal ideas from industry and other teams from the past.
  • Make things within your frame perimeter bulletproof and hard, and things outside the perimeter wall-proof and flexible.
  • Polycarb layers make things flexy (credit 95).
  • Wire things right, electrical failures cost at least $500 per match.
  • Design so that sub-system parts are easy to access and easy to replace, like, replace the whole claw.
  • Speaking of claws, make them roll.
  • All the grabby things should roll.
  • Don’t create a new drive train during the season. Have your drive train done and running before the first week is over.
  • If your drive train is more than 6-8 tank driven wheels, or four swerve modules, stop. Get help. Don’t do it. Mecan-tanka-tread is not a way to play effectively.
  • If the game piece is soft, make your pickup and indexing rigid. Reverse that for hard game pieces, and add springiness to your system.
  • Be mechanically done by week 4 so you can test it and break it and fix it before your first competition.
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I keep this next to my head at my desk at home.

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Really relevant to product design, but specifically for me and FRC this is my constant reminder that no amount of planning and thinking ahead can make everything absolutely perfect for my team. Mistakes happen, stuff goes wrong, students make bad decisions because they aren’t old enough to know better, it’s part of the experience.

You can think you have made the perfect mechanism with 0 flaws but we know that never happens and realistically you’ll have to iterate a few times til it’s as foolproof as you’re willing to accept as good enough. You shouldn’t obsess over it forever, but definitely try to think of the really outside scenarios you’d never expect. Because if it can happen, it will.

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If you didn’t break it at home, you’ll definitely break it at competition.

ETA: didn’t mean to post as a reply

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