In 2013, we started building 2 robots. One “practice” bot, and one competition bot. 4 seasons later, we put a stop to that practice and went with one preseason-built rolling drive train for prototyping, and one actual robot. It was the best decision ever.
In the 2-bot years, the last weekend of build was usually a scramble to get both of the final robots “production ready” so the programmers could put the final code onto both at the last minute. Often times the mechanism designers weren’t present for programming since we were exhausted. The result was a robot with increasing potential over the course of a season, yet a very rudimentary and noncompetitive initial capability to start the season. This year was very different.
Due to uncertainty with this season, last Fall we decided we would build one robot, and therefore have a single, focused strategy. Our build & electronics teams didn’t even get the final robot to the programmers until noon this Saturday, even with the “simple” strategy of being among the best gear bots in the world. Our programmers had us a working robot, and a working autonomous, by the end of Saturday. Why? The build team was there in full force, fully cognizant and rested enough to concisely explain how the robot worked and appropriately fix its nuances. We even had time to experiment with brown-outs due to 6 CIMs pushing in high gear*.
4 actual drive hours** on our quarter-field and 1 hour on a skinny/long field later, we have more drive time on this robot than we had on both of last year’s robots combined (including all official and offseason play). That’s approximately 150 matches worth of play on our production robot before the competition season has started. Tonight we hit a 13-second full-field cycle in low gear (and recorded; we’ll see about a release video…). Our climb missed once in its 80 or so climbs.
It is very satisfying to not be exhausted and know that we will be competitive as soon as we hit the competition field. Being among the best at one thing while only building 1 robot means the season wasn’t easy at all - but given how willing the subteams are to continue a drive towards perfection throughout the rest of the competition I believe it was the best decision we’ve ever made.
So here’s a toast to all of the single-robot teams. You are more competitive than the 2-robot teams would ever have you believe.
*They are a thing of the past. The experiment is hilarious to watch - video to be posted soon. The new RoboRIO, VRM, and PDB firmware capabilities are amazing…
**Calculated by how long teleop was enabled in between battery changes
This is good to hear. As a rookie team we only have the one machine and are pretty much just getting the thing out the door with little practice time. However, next season is already starting to get some pre-planning with one of them being a driving chassis in a different format. Thinking we might go this route with a working drive base to have as a more realistic test bed.
Yeah this is our third year, and for some reason, I always feel like our #1 issue is not enough time. Whether it comes to building something better or to driving or the autonomous. There is always so much to improve upon. We only have 1 robot. Question: Does anyone know how to make a poll??
OP, I don’t understand why your second bot doesn’t have way more hours. Why didn’t you drive the heck out of your second bot while the competition bot was in the bag?
I think there are still some advantages with building two robots that can help teams compete at the highest level. With two robots teams have the ability to continually iterate mechanisms and software. This constant iteration is one of the great parts about FRC because it is what allows the level of play to rise as the season progresses.
I do understand that resource limitations don’t allow teams to build two robots so this may be something to consider when discussing a possible removal of the 6 week build season. If we removed the 6 week limitation, teams that don’t have the ability to build two robots will still be able to continually iterate their robots and the level of competition will only get better.
The one down side to something like this is burn out as explained in the quote above. People need a break and the 6 week build season has a sort of fixed breaking point; although most teams will continue to work throughout the competition season to improve.
Very good to hear that this new situation worked out for your team.
Unfortunate that the 2 robot situation didn’t work out.
This year my team decided to build 3 robots and we are very happy with the decision. 1 competition robot, 1 practice robot, 1 programming robot. We have not finished all 3 during the build season but rather complete 1 and progress the other 2 as far as we can before bag and tag. We then complete the other 2 after bag, while constantly iterating and upgrading them to make our bagged robot better once we make it to competition. This makes it great for our drivers and programmers because we can carry out drive practice and autonomous mode development at the same time.
Multiple robots are not for every team, but it sure has helped my team thus far and we plan to continue to do this in the future.
Descoping definitely can (and did) help in such situations, though. 1 robot will create a certain ceiling, but that doesn’t matter if you don’t use 2 at close to their fullest. Kudos OP; it’s far more important to bite off the right amount than pile a Simbotics’ or Poofs’ sized mountain of food on your plate and get sick. 1640 does keep to the 2 robot camp, but that’s largely because 4 hours of drive practice amounts to just part of a normal Saturday. No reason to build it if you don’t use it.
I’m remembering our 3rd year…We were only able to build 1 robot…so to practice the driver yelled the inputs he was giving at a “robot” (Another student on the team) while 5 other students moved around pretending to be alliance partners or robots doing defense. Honestly it worked out pretty well in terms of figuring out strategy…
Last year we tried to build 2, but because of availability of parts/ cost (we used the rhino drive train on our competition robot last year) we had 2 widely different drive trains…Keeping the practice robot running took more time than it was worth and the difference in drive train behavior actually hurt our drivers.
Hope you all have a great season and best of luck to you all!
I think it all boils down to the age-old and sage advice of “build within your capability”. Build within your capability, do it well, finish on time, and get lots of practice.
That can mean simplifying your approach to the game and, say, building a robot that’s really good at gears and climbing, but maybe doesn’t even try to shoot fuel.
That can also mean building only one robot if, by trying to build two, you’re stretching your resources too much. The advantages to building the second one are reduced if, by doing so, everyone is so exhausted afterward that they’re too tired to use it, or the two robots are so different (due to cost savings, etc.) that it’s a lot of work tracking the differences between the two.
Also keep in mind when your event(s) are. If you are attending a week 1 or 2 event, there might be more of an advantage in building one robot, finishing early, and getting lots of practice, than having the second robot available on or after bag day and only having a few days to use it.
We are a one robot team too. Sometimes it feels like a major disadvantage, but in honesty we don’t have the number of meeting between competitions that it would take for a 2nd robot to be beneficial. I think a lot of other teams are in that boat.
After being a 2 robot team at least the last 5 years, Team 537 decided to do 1 robot this year. We also significantly reduced our build season from MoTuWeThSa to TuThSa, which has resulted in much lower burnout and better attitudes all around. While this year’s game might have a lot to do with it, we are further along this year than we’ve been in a long time and feel we have a much more competitive bot than the previous couple of years.
I am hopeful that there is a future without bag day, where each team can continue to tweak their bots and iterate throughout the competition season. I think this will level the playing field so that more teams can improve throughout the season and make the games more competitive overall at a lower cost.
It is great that you are getting better results. I would guess that your team is enjoying the experience more and more inspired than in previous years?
The number of robots you build should be driven by your teams capabilities rather than a “magic number”. Karthik’s Golden Rule is a reflection of one of Sun Tzu’s rules from “Art of War”:
“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."
