[CRUSH-build] Preparation for Las Vegas

[Brian]

Yes, I did rank them in order... but I think we can have one's cake and 
eat it too!

Let's assume we spend the ten total hours available to us between now 
and the competition to fabricate the parts needed to implement a 
conveyor belt system. Those parts would be (1) the new roller, (2) the 
top roller, and (3) the backplate. Let's also assume we spend that time 
fabricating a track to prevent jamming in the basket.

Now to achieve the first goal of scoring in autonomous, we will most 
definitely need to attend all of our practice matches in order to test 
it. Assuming everything goes horribly wrong and we don't get it working 
until the very last match, that will take up random time slots of 30 
minutes (moving the robot to the field etc) between 10am and 5pm. Even 
if we assumed that from 10 to 5 the robot was only available for 
programming, that would give us 2 hours before and 3 hours after for 
adding parts/fixing the robot. Since we know the main functions of the 
robot already work, we can assume that most of that time can be spent 
making upgrades.

Now for upgrades, Bill said we don't want to move the wheels (so unless 
someone comes up with an idea to get on the ramp better, we can scratch 
out goal 3). I would also advise against gearing us down because I think 
the speed in our autonomous could prove useful. That leaves adding the 
track to the basket and implementing the conveyor belt. The nice part 
about both of these is that they can be done at the same time (assuming 
enough hands can get near the robot) and don't have to be completed all 
at once. Since we don't use our current collector anyway, I would see no 
problem of attaching some of the parts, then going out for a practice 
match, then coming back to add more etc.

It may be hectic, but I think all that can be done in the 12 hours 
alloted to us on Thursday.

Brian

bill at wizardofaz.net wrote:
> If autonomous scoring is at or near the top of the list, then we for 
> sure have to allocate significant time to developing and testing that 
> fuction on the practice day. This precludes doing much else to the 
> hardware that would use up that time. We can also do a careful 
> assessment of why ramp climbing is so hard, and maybe do something 
> about it if there's an easy idea. We have a lot of video, maybe 
> viewing that will be helpful.
>
> Brian, if your rank 1 to 4 is correct, we shouldn't do anything to the 
> collector system on Thursday until the last thing of the day, and I 
> predict that will mean we don't do it at all. We can remake the 
> collector roller here (I brought it home), and remount it quickly. I 
> think it will be lighter - I'll use the ABS idea I saw on another 
> robot instead of the aluminum - and a bigger shaft that can take a 
> beating.