Lessons Learned

  • Navigate the wiki using the sidebar -------->
  • Comment code as you go
  • Entropy Happens!
  • Hope is not a plan!!
  • Update the Status Log before you leave the BotCave!
  • Hitting your head on a wall hurts!
  • Add your name to the 'Author:' field when you save something to the wiki.
  • Please comment your code
  • Keep the state machine in numerical order before you leave for the day
  • Fail early, fail often!! Use failed_U for all possible errors
  • Place a beep() within state machine loop to catch undefined states

What did you gain from the Botball experience?

  1. new set of friends from different schools
  2. how good a taquito tastes when you are hungry on Sunday afternoon
  3. I found what career path I would like to pursue in the future
  4. Good work ethic and how to work with/manage a team
  5. I knew I wanted to be an engineer but now I know that I want to have a career in robotics or systems engineering
  6. A fun place to hang out after school and weekends and play with LEGOS(Yeah Baby)

What did you gain from the documentation process?

  1. How to comment code in a way that enables a hardware person to understand what the robot is supposed to be doing
  2. It may be boring and not fun but you have to do it and THATS LIFE
  3. Knowledge to hyperlink a table of contents with different pages for different sections in Microsoft Word

What surprised you most about your Botball experience?

  1. How much fun we have and how relaxed we are when there is nothing to do

(TIM, HARDWARE...ahem)

What advice would you pass on to future Botball teams?

  1. STATE MACHINE
  2. Using the code repository in a network so multiple computers can access the code
  3. Making past code read-only so that only the most current code is modified
  4. Not calling an all-off at the end of every state because it released the pressure from the claws dropping whatever it was the claw was holding
  5. Having four robots, two originals and a clone for each so that that both hardware and software can be working on the same robot at the same time.
  6. Placing a beep at the bottum of the state machine so that when a state is called that doesnt exist we can know right away why the code failed
  7. Using the wiki for scheduling, showing status, and planning
  8. Score Early, Score Often
  9. Hardware: random ideas work, if an idea doesn't work think of another; there will be a way to do most tasks by being creative with your parts.
  10. Make sure to pick people for your team that you know will help your team and not just your friends

From the Regional Competition

  1. WE NEED PROJECT X
  2. We need to test outside (with lots of IR flooding)
  3. We need a way to get rid of the solar sails before the other team drops the bridge (Anthony already has an idea)
  4. I am wondering if it wouldn't be smarter to wall follow into the opponent's shelter because 30 pts. might help us more than screwing up the other robot
  5. Cow catcher on the front of Legobot to knock other teams off the bridge
  6. Test with a teflon covered board.
  7. Get rid of solar sails and stop them from getting across (not Project X) within 4 seconds.
  8. test line follow across bridge
  9. possibility of improved createbot? (new arm) Liam has thoughts
  10. Project X will save us from losing the tie breakers because we will win by 15 points and not lose a 4th rule tiebreaker (sniffle, sniffle...) =(
  11. That 5-6 Dr. Peppers plus stress makes for one heck of a morning the next day(not to mention ONLY 5 hours of sleep)
  12. That the mechanical bull of legobot was PURE GENIUS on hardwares part GO HARDWARE!!!!
  13. Keep robot parts flexible and secure for all the slamming and bashing they do (i.e. lining up and hitting the other bots)