We had some fun over the last few weeks with an old robot from 2022. What kind of things to other teams do? 4th of July Cow - YouTube
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1678 likes to use old robots for demo days and to reference old design/build methods.
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We are currently in possession of three robots right now, our 2020, 2022, and 2023 bots.
We mainly used our 2020 bot for software testing in the past seasons, as well as a teaching tool for new members. We’re going to be stripping it down to just the chassis soon so it’s easier for us to store.
We used our 2022 bot at an off season comp in October and since then we’ve mainly turned it into a demo bot for our outreach events. We’re in the process of repairing/rebuilding it now.
We’re planning on using our 2023 bot for at least one off season comp in the fall, but besides that we’ll have to see.
All of our older bots were dismantled for parts.
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While upkeeping our 2018 bot we found out it can almost shoot a cube so we updated it for this year game and took it to big bang a Michigan offseason comp
But most of the time we keep the husk of the bot till we need parts
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We’ve saved them (though they don’t all run anymore) for similar reasons to those mentioned by others in the thread, but we will likely disassemble some soon to reclaim space. A bit sad, but after 10 years & considering space constraints, it’s time. We will always sustain a couple demo/outreach bots, and I suspect we’ll keep some mechanisms intact from the disassembled ones. And we have decent CAD going back to 2017 that we’ll continue to look back at (along with the huge 3847 Spectrum CAD collection).
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Most get dismantled for parts. Our 2022 bot is the exception
This is a display case in the school, it comes out for out reach and parades.
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Save some of them for demo purposes. The others are scraped due to space/materials.
2013 saved for demo, always a hit
2016 saved for driving demo
2017 we have cause why not
2019 we have
2020 we have
2022 we have + used for demo
2023 we have for swerve demo
We don’t really have room to store old robots. The previous season robot always survives intact until at least until the next build season starts since we use it for off-season demos, driver training, and programming training. Some previous season robots make it through the next build season, but most have enough parts scavenged from them during build that they aren’t runnable, so they are dismantled.
Dismantling is a fun task, usually reserved for freshmen or first-year team members. We try to control the disassembly and have students examine the mechanisms for learning as they take them apart.
Key parts tend to go home with students, often graduating ones. The tube with a Champs inspection sticker is probably the hottest commodity. Parts with the team number, name, or robot name machined into them or stuck on to them are close behind. Students that are particularly proud of some design or fabrication effort may take the essential parts or assembly from that design or fabrication effort.
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Delicious meal
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Auction them off to your alumni
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We usually have one older robot (i.e., not the current season’s) around for demo purposes and as a training robot for drivers, often the last season’s robot. Otherwise, we just don’t have storage room for keeping a lot of past robots intact, so they’re disassembled for useful parts, while some important or innovative mechanisms are retained and stored for design and/or engineering reference purposes. We usually also keep at least a token representative part from each robot that gets hung somewhere around the shop as a memento.
My team has 2 robots right now, both for demos. We got the 2022 and 2023 robots but only the 2023 if fully wired, 2022 is just stationary carcass at the moment but we are working towards getting it back to what it once was. In regards to the 2023 bot, we are looking for demos to take it around to. We have a few bots from seasons before 2020 but it is either just the drivetrain that is used for practicing driving or for teaching new members, that sort of thing.
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So I am going off memory but here is what our team did for past bots.
Completely scraped - 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2020-21
Main frame still intact for display but stripped of everything else off - 2012, 2013
Some main scoring element intact for display but everything else scraped - 2016, 2017
Turned into a CNC cage - 2018 extrusion elevator
Used for demo and teaching programmers (Fully Functional) - 2019, 2022
Had to rebuild post-season (Everything bent) and do not know what to do yet - 2023
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Make it deliver holiday cheer: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZQovNgcq8cE65XWA8
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2017 kinda sits in a corner and i made him drive like last year i think it was. 2018. Well. Lets just call 2018 spare parts. Most of the superstructure and drive train is together. 2019 is itself minus a roborio. 2020 is mostly there just minus some motors and gears. 2022 all there. 2023 please stay whole 
We have every robot we’ve built going back to 2001 plus a handful of practice bots, so probably 30 in total. 330’s 2017 bot is with us as well (we won a regional and were Newton division finalists with them that year). Most sit in shipping containers we use for storage, but someday it’d be nice to have pallet racks to display them inside. Bots from the last couple of years tend to see regular use for programming training, demos, parades, etc. It’d be nice to get them all working too, but that’s unlikely to happen, so for now it’s more of just a museum.
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Agree to preserve the comp bot in functional condition for display, then frantically scavenge it when we run out of Falcons the next season.
Practice bots typically become a canvas for new students to design and build a b-bot for off-season events, and then they get scrapped.
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1708 converts old robots into usable community robots.
We currently have 4 robots that are utilized for community events.
2013 Frisbee shooter still utilized to launch them
2014 chassis converted to a T-Shirt cannon that utilizes two scuba tanks.
2016 chassis is still used for community to drive.
2023 is used for showcase and manipulation.
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We fully dismantle and rebuild last season robot 1-2 times to teach rookies how to build a robot. Then before the new season starts we scrap it for parts.