|
home | 2003 contest | bot design | advice | team info |
1) Start building early!!! There's a reason almost every team suggests this :) After you've come up with a few designs that seem to share a common component (like a ramp for the ball to enter the bot, or a lift system to raise the ball), you should definately try building that component. This way you can be sure that it is really possible and doesn't present a problem later on. We came up with a bunch of different ideas that utilized a ramp to get the ball in the bot, but in the final week we found it to be much harder than we initially thought.
2) Don't be afraid to take apart your bot. Chances are another few tries will yield a much better prototype.
3) Brace your bot. It is easiest to brace the bot if you have a modular design, so try to break up your bot into its structural components. Our bot had two front wheels surrounded by a braced gear box. This front unit was then braced to a back unit comprised of a back wheel and two side compartments for the handyboard and the hawkers. We did the "waist-high drop test" as well. It worked, but the drop bent some axles in the gear box and we had to take apart the whole thing and replace parts :( Just twist the braced box around a bit, and if nothing pops off, it's good.
4) Create your own motor mounts. The motor mount examples they give you are only examples. Feel free to change it or design your own to accomodate your robot design.
5) Test your sensors before mounting it on your robot. If you are going to use the distance sensor, make sure that you test it out a lot with the objects they give you. We found that ours was miscalibrated and angled incorrectly because we used a wall instead of the ball to measure distance.
6) Use the black heat shield tube on all the light/ir detecting sensors. It should extend at least half an inch beyond the sensor.
7) Conserve your ultra long lego pieces, they are precious.
8) If you are going to attach a lego piece on top of a gear on a servo, make sure to properly orient the black turntable shape on the servo. You should unscrew it, and set the servo the the 0 position with the handyboard, then reattach the black turntable shape in the orientation that you will attach a lego piece to the gear that you will attach the black turntable too.
9) Rethink your strategy. So you think you have the best strategy that cannot possibly fail, or, a more extreme case, you have a bot that will disable the opponent bot before it scores with 100% probability. Neither the winning strategy, nor the sabotage should be counted on. Chances are, your winning strategy is just one or two steps too complicated, and toning it down a bit might make both your IAP easier, and your bot more dependable. If you plan on sabotaging the opponent bot, please reconsider. If you are 100% certain that you can disable the opponent bot before it scores, you better be 200% certain that your bot can score some major points or do something truly impressive to wow audiences and opponents alike. Many teams that work very hard on their robot get early losses because they are pitted against one of these sabotage machines. If you do not score nobly, you will only anger your opponent, and weaken the competition. Not only that, but you are undermining the work of others at no particular advantage to yourself, other than causing a double loss. The short of it, unless you're Smashy and Grabby, leave the other bots alone.