Jessica of Team 3044 asked the 15 most experienced teams at the 2009 Finger Lakes Regional, “What is the most useful advice you have for a rookie team?”
And They Answered…
“It’s like legos!”
Everybody just fits together and works together.
Keep your batteries charged
Keep it simple.
Have fun and be really into it. Cheer a lot.
Be a good scout
Never give up
Don’t procrastinate.
Do the best you can and be happy.
Play to the strength of your robot.
It’s hard work, but have fun.
Ask for help: ChiefDelphi and the guys in the pit next door.
Testing the students [especially drive team] on the field rules helps in the long run especially in a game such as Lunacy where i’m pretty sure all of the penalties @ buckeye] were caused by human players.
Also, something our team does is give a general robot test that allows anyone who doesn’t know something about a piece of the robot know what it is and what it does.
-Don’t complain that you lost that match, think about what, under your control, you can improve.
-If you can improve something, make sure you have enough time to do it 2-3 times.
-Things can go wrong on the practice field.
-Sometimes I feel like I stick my neck out there when I say this, but- The mentors, coaches, and teachers aren’t always right. And it is mainly the ones who say that it’s not true that it applies to.
-One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that you have to learn.
ZIP TIE THE BATTERY CONNECTOR TOGETHER!!
If your robot gets hit hard enough that red connector for the main battery may disconnect. It has happened.
one zip tie/ tie strap/etc or no power for a match.
have a check list in the pit, so that after a match you can do a complete physical of the robot.
this has saved our team more than once, like a setscrew that had fallen out, and if we hadn’t checked it, we would have put the robot on the field and the main function would not have worked.
don’t forget to scout
have one (1) person take care of the batteries, with a system everyone understands
check the robot after every match
thank your mentors, volunteers and parents
don’t forget your GP
always leave with a positive experience
The three things I try to encourage rookie teams to do are:
Buy a scale!!
Pick a common fastener and stick to it unless there is a really good reason not to in a particular place. My personal preference is 1/4-20 socket head cap screws, but whatever you pick is fine. Then buy them in 1/4" length increments from 1/2" to about 2-1/2", along with the correct nuts and washers. Then buy about a dozen of the correct wrenches for whatever size you picked. And hide all the other sizes in the toolbox. It’s nice to be able to give everyone on the pit / drive teams their own wrench, and they have the tool in their pocket to fix almost anything.
Buy a scale!!
Spend $150-$200 on a good 200# capacity digital scale. And then make sure you use it. It’s a lot easier to take weight off a part before you install it the first time than to take the robot apart later to drill holes in something.
Put as much effort into sustaining your program as you do your robot. The last thing you want to do if figure out how your going to pay for things, when your too busy trying to build the best robot you can build.
From what I’ve seen from the best teams this year and definantly last year is that the teams that score big and score fast win. 1114 and 1024 showed me last me what it means to be great. A fast bot with a simple scoring system is what I have strived to achieve ever since seeing them. I know I kept asking myself as I sat in front of the computer on those late night builds, “Take out weight. Make it simpler. Make it better.”
Look for the multipliers that you can score a lot very quickly. Last year it was laps. This year, a team that can get all of the empty cells will be dangerous. That is as long as they have the human player to score…
Your team and ours are very similar in terms of looking at everything else as much as the robots. We have crossed paths the last two years and I’m sure we will again at CMP this year.
Good luck in Philly (my favorite MLB team). Go “Flyin Hawaiian”!!!
