Day 40, 41, 42

Bumpers are a large eye-catching part of the robot. Have to make sure they look good!

The Line in the Sand:

"What we have on Sunday is what we put into the bag. On Monday, software gets the robot, and mechanical doesn't get to touch it again until competition." Head coach dictated the final few days of our season. We need to throw everything together and put <something> into software's hands. This coming weekend will decide a number of things. One, just what will software end up with? Two, is this the fire that can adhere 30 teenagers to a fixed deadline? Three, can I really keep coming up with random thoughts and opinions to spew into a blog for 4 more days?

It's Friday night before Bag-n-Tag. We have assemblies started for our cargo shooter and floor intake. We have parts cut for our climber. We have 5 machines running as often as we have drawings and CAM files, and when we finished construction of our elevator... we found a bind issue that naturally set us back a few hours with tweaks and tuning and re-cutting. The scariest part of this type of crunch, is that we don't know, what we don't know.

Luck Vs Skill

We were the number one seed on Carver Division at the 2018 Houston Championship. 1690, Orbit, received an unfortunate red card in one of their last qualifying matches, denying them the RP that would have seen them place at the top. Was that luck, or skill? Any number of similar events happen all across build and competition season, which can swing a team's momentum one way or another. Last year our team had a long celebration and retrospective on our achievements of the year. We had changed a lot of things. We prepared, planned, executed, and learned. It may have been in the back of our minds, but we never really discussed the favors given to us over which we had no control or influence. Whether luck falls in our favor or not, it plays into a lot of our every day lives. Some teams have larger shops, more students, more sponsors, etc. Some don't. As an individual, and as a team, luck will find you. Some of it will hopefully be good, some of it may be... ungood? Regardless, it will happen, and there are not many things you as an individual, or your team can do about luck. Best thing to do with luck, is understand what parts of a build or competition, or life, were in fact luck, and separate those items out from actual preparation and execution. The best part about being an engineer is dreaming up every possible way something can go wrong. For the things in your control, you understand, re-design, plan or practice to reduce the opportunity for failure. For the things our of your control, I've always had a ritual of wearing my argyle socks on competition day.

We have literally boxes of parts. Literally.

Moderation

This year we got addicted. To CAD. I say this year, really it's been a constant through most of our years. I heard one student proclaim the other day "Woah, did you know other teams don't even use CAD? They just build and match drill and remake parts if they don't fit!". In contrast, we spend week upon week refining, fixing broken mates, re-designing when clearances aren't met, when systems interfere, that it is often a miracle we get stuff built at all. Specific to this year, however, seems to be an utter reliance on CAD.

Simulated conversation:

Mentor: Hey, want to try a new model or new shape for a plastic hatch holder?
Design Student: Sure, let me see if it works in CAD.

<5 minutes later>

Mentor: Here's new new design I was thinking of. <Holds up new plastic bit.>
Design Student: Wait, how did you make that? I didn't finish the CAD, and didn't get a review, or CAM it to cut on the CNC router!

This process has led to our manufacturing delays, then the inevitable manufacturing bottleneck. (We're also nice people and have received and fulfilled requests to manufacture pieces for other local teams who have been unable to access their shops due to inclimate weather.) This is definitely a fault with some of our training and practice. We taught our kids to be reliant on the tools around them, and that's exactly what they did. CAD is a fantastic resource for teenagers (pre-college real-world skill acquisition? Madness!) to learn and use when designing a complex system. It can show how math is applied to physical items. It can provide estimates for weight and CG IF used and set correctly. It can prove geometry and fitment details that can then be replicated near perfectly by machines. But CAD, or Solidworks, which we use, is professional software which can be overwhelming to get used to, or figure out how to create certain types of pieces. Synchronizing subsystems among several students is a constant struggle, keeping our master file clean and free of issue. While we approach FRC with a professional outlook, we have over-emphasized the use of CAD, and forgotten some of the fundamentals. We can measure and drill-press bearing holes. We can match drill mounts. The lessons we should practice and train for next year, is using CAD in moderation.

CAD is a tool, like a wrench or a hammer. Some people can be very fast at updating CAD, and some people can swing a hammer and hit their thumb. The important thing is to remember that there are a number of different tools in our shop, and in most FRC toolboxes. It is good to know and learn about each, understand when and how to use each, and keep every tool in mind while designing and building a robot. Also, try not to aim for your thumb when swinging a hammer.

The box of parts

Some assembly managed

We might actually have something together here... if we can find it among the mess...

Quote of the Day:

Student 1: We cut a pound just from the brackets!
Mentor 1: Now some of them look like cute foxes!
Mentor 2: We tried to make a penguin, but it just looks like an alligator.
Mentor 1: With a growth on it...

We get a little... loopy... at 3:58am...