Navigational Aids for the Journey of Creation Design Tips Navigational Aids for the Journey of Creation

Designing Robust Robots Requires: Productive Originality Creative success comes from making a commitment and making It work! Logic Defining why ideas do or do not make sense Process Read about how other BattleBot designers went about designing their robots. Read about how other designers go about designing buildings, chairs, cars, movie sets….anything…look for the similarities. Logic and process will be among them. Thinking, visualizing, building and testing. Trading on the currency of being focused and working hard. Desire Passion gets you through the hard parts of journey

Mix and Match the Steps, but Understand the Problem The Great 8 Mix and Match the Steps, but Understand the Problem Understand the Problem Develop Ideas Create Drawings Select the Best Ideas Integrate Here is a workable design process. If you don’t have a design process of your own yet. One you can create a slide for and talk about…then use this one. Ideas are statements that describe WHAT your robot will do Designs describe HOW your machine will work Always develop multiple Idea combinations before deciding on one particular set of ideas. Visualize the Ideas Evaluate Build and Test

Reduce Risk Factors

The 5 Budgets Rule the Design Process Time Budgets There is never enough so use it wisely. Make GANNT CHARTS Money Budgets Nuff said. The five budgets are constraints that we need to respect and manage. We all have finite resources. Recognize them and use them intelligently. Weight Budgets You can’t do everything. Make smart choices about what your robot will do and how it will do it.

The 5 Budgets Rule the Design Process Knowledge Budgets At the start of the project cycle, trade some Time for Knowledge. Work within your knowledge budget.What you don’t know can and will hurt you! Power Budgets Big motors, high speed and torturous torque curves need big batteries. Big batteries impinge on weight budgets. Honor the run time constraints! Analyze your battery and motor combinations

Understand Problem the It’s the game…..smarty! KNOW THE RULES! When designing competitive Robots you’ll need to understand 2 essential things: 1. What is the GAME! Really, what is going on deep inside the game. 2. What stuff do you have…what Knowledge,Time, Money Tools and experience does your team have? Write an essay, or screenplay about the game. Talk about all the stuff you have available… Read the rules of the game, over and over again. Dream about the game. Touch and handle Components. Run the motors, stall them..feel their power….know the motors. Play the game in your head. Play your IDEA against other ideas. Think hard about the game not about the robot….know the game. In time, you will become one with the game…this will help you win the game. KNOW THE RULES!

And the Rules that Govern the Play Talk about the game….a lot. Know the GAME And the Rules that Govern the Play Trinity Fire Fighting FIRST BattleBots IQ Texas Best BotBall Repeat the problem…the problem is the game! Your robot is the solution to the game! Most people build bad robots because they have not thought hard enough about the game…simple robots win very complicated games. Talk about the game….a lot.

Ask Essential Questions About the Game. How can the game be won? How can the game be lost? How fast do I have to move to score? What do I need to do to win? What can make me loose? What are the offensive aspects of the game? What are the defensive aspects of the game? Which is more important? Does the game playing strategy change over time? How much time is required to score? How much time do I have to play the game? Think a lot about time…… What is a scoring cycle anyway? How do I score points? How do I loose points? This type of questioning could go on for days, and it should. How long is a game? These are good starter questions. There are thousands more

Brainstorming is About Developing Ideas Develop and Share Ideas Thinking about your design, sketching ideas, and making protoype sub assemblies to test your ideas are all parallel activities. Each one of these activities: sketching, thinking, testing building causes changes and modifications to the other activities. Example. While testing a subassembly for a lifting arm that was built from a sketch, the designers realize that while the mechanism has enough torque to lift the scoring object, the shape and position of the lifting mechanism prevents the robot from going up the ramp….the design must be modified…but which design, the chassis or the arm? Lots of Ideas

Write Statements About the ‘Bot Copy them in your design notebook Write 100 things about the robot, write them, write them on a plane, write them, write them on a train, write them, write them until you go insane! Start to put your thoughts on paper and save the paper. Thoughts come and go. Recorded thoughts keep us from “Spinning our mental wheels”…writing thoughts is like putting chains on tires…it keeps us from getting stuck. Copy them in your design notebook

Create Specifications Clearly describe what your robot will do and be Use Pneumatics to Lift Opponents Maneuverable Fast 4 Wheel Drive Differential Steering Write down WHAT your machine will do….in the beginning you can write down that it will score from a high earth orbit… Eventually you will have to reconcile what you WILL DO with what you CAN do. This is where clever designers get noticed. What does your machine have to do to play?

Before You Build Know WHAT your Robot will do Recognize design trade-offs Time/Money/Knowledge/Power/Weight Know HOW your Robot will do it. Specifications are about WHAT your robot will do…What your robot will do is an IDEA…it is not a thing. WHAT you say your robot will do depends on how well you’ve come to understand the game…… HOW is different from WHAT. HOW your robot will do WHAT you’ve said it will do is the beginning of a THING…. HOW is still about ideas…but these are special ideas…these are ideas you can make into THINGS…some of these THINGS will not work like the IDEA….so you have to make adjustments…you adjust the HOW’s. You prototype the HOW’s you experiment with the HOW’s…. The HOW’s are driven by the WHAT’s and the WHAT’s are driven by your complete understanding of the GAME and the stuff you have to work with. The STUFF is what engineers call resources. No one has all the STUFF they want. Not having what you want, or not being able to do what you want is called CONSTRAINTS. Anticipate problems Study Mechanisms and Materials Build and Test Assemblies

These are not questions What comes first. These are not questions What comes before How Specifications are about WHAT your robot will do…What your robot will do is an IDEA…it is not a thing. WHAT you say your robot will do depends on how well you’ve come to understand the game…… HOW is different from WHAT. HOW your robot will do WHAT you’ve said it will do is the beginning of a THING…. HOW is still about ideas…but these are special ideas…these are ideas you can make into THINGS…some of these THINGS will not work like the IDEA….so you have to make adjustments…you adjust the HOW’s. You prototype the HOW’s you experiment with the HOW’s…. The HOW’s are driven by the WHAT’s and the WHAT’s are driven by your complete understanding of the GAME and the stuff you have to work with. The STUFF is what engineers call resources. No one has all the STUFF they want. Not having what you want, or not being able to do what you want is called CONSTRAINTS.

Ask Essential Questions About the Stuff You Need to Build a ‘Bot. How do I make wheels and axles move? Study the STUFF…Let the parts speak to you…listen and they will tell you secrets. Touch the stuff. Pick it up turn it over in your hands. Learn with your sense of touch!. Know your motors. Evaluate available Gear Ratios. Pull on the pulleys and belts. Memorize the sprockets Think about what a servo is, what it can do. What you can do with it. How much room do the batteries need? What kind of traction devices can you build? How and Why will you build them? The STUFF is your design universe…understand the stuff you have to work with. Know your limitations, imagine the possibilities of what you can do with the stuff…lay in bed at night and assemble stuff. Some designers are always frustrated by what they cannot do with the stuff…great designers are always thinking up really cool things they can do with the stuff. Be a great designer. Thinking wins…not machines….thinking about the suff the machines are made from, wins. How much power can the motors produce? Think of a few hundred more.

Visualize the Prize Combine and Analyze the Ideas Make Sketches of the Ideas Use CAD Skills to Parallel the Prototyping Process Designing competitive robots is an exciting activity. It’s quite a bit of fun. But the purpose of design is in great part, production. Your design is great if: 1.) It does what you want and expect it to do, well. 2.) It does not fail to operate. 3.) It is EASY TO WORK ON. 2D and 3D design tools are useful throughout the design process, but they are particularly important for designs that will be produced……by the thousands!

Develop Multiple Solutions Play the solutions against each other using “What if” scenarios Get very specific about WHAT you will do to win the game. WRITE IT DOWN IN FINAL FORM….carve it in soft rock….it can change, but it shouldn't… Going backward costs you your MOST precious resource…TIME. Search for the best solution, then make it better

Build Test and Evaluate Build a Drive Train and Test It Build things that work, and work and work Make a Controllable Platform Put 100 lbs on it Come up with several machine designs…and play them against one another…and then interchange the parts and ideas…make hybrid ideas. Play them against each other…Make ideas that are possible to create with the stuff you have.. It is unwise to develop design ideas that you cannot build with the resources you have. Be tough on yourself…critique your own design harshly. The thinking and designing and drawing part of the design process is far more important and time consuming than the building part of the design process. IF YOU DO THE THINKING PART CORRECTLY. Test and Evaluate the Sub-Assemblies Make modifications and changes

Make a Decision Matrix Time Money Knowledge Power Weight 2 1 1 2 Compare Ideas Rationally 4 Wheel Drive 2 Wheel Drive Time Money Knowledge Power Weight 2 1 1 2 Compare ideas. Develop a value system for your ideas. Ideas are like people, you usually have to give up a little something to get a little something. Give up the least, and get the most from your ideas….pick the best one in relation to all the others…. Two wheels have advantages with respect to the 5 Budgets

Do the Math (W/H) x CD-10 = Your Machine W = WHAT you want the machine to do H = HOW you expect the machine to do it CD-10 = What the machine CAN DO given the available time and resources Think about this math…do the math…respect the math….If you don’t get this message clearly then ask someone about this slide. This is THE DESIGN EQUATION. It works for Table Top Robots, it works for BattleBots, it works for life…..

Simple is Often Elegant Good designers understand E = mc2 Good designers understand the power of simple elegance Think about this math…do the math…respect the math….If you don’t get this message clearly then ask someone about this slide. This is THE DESIGN EQUATION. It works for Table Top Robots, it works for BattleBots, it works for life…..

Combine Subassemblies Make hybrids. Play your ideas against one another…against other people’s ideas. Make existing ideas better. Integrate the Parts

Test It, Evaluate It Refine the Design Winning robots are first and foremost working robots…..build it BEFORE the competition, not during the competition. Read what Carlo Bertocchini has to say about winning designs. http://www.battlebots.com/bnc_tips_cbertocchini_01.asp

Think Modify Build Evaluate Test This is what you are doing….until it’s time to build….this is what happens in the “Front end” of design. This is what makes the back end of design enjoyable. Test

“Win the Crowd Maximus…….” Refine the Design Deliver a Working Robot on Game Day If your design specifications call for a lifting arm…then do the design, test the design be certain the design will work. Think about how it will integrate with the rest of the robot. Creative opportunities abound…keep your senses sharp, anticipate problems. Make one thing do two jobs. The saddest designer is the one who is reluctant to test ideas, who BELIEVES the design will work for no other reason than THEY thought it up…and then on game day, they finally understand why it will not work…this is a valid and valuable lesson but not one YOU want to suffer through. “Win the Crowd Maximus…….”

Play With the ‘Bot and Learn to DRIVE You worked for this, enjoy the games While your playing with your robot…while your competing with your robot, pay attention to reliability. Watch the robots that are prone, or not prone to breaking. Figure out why they are breaking. What is causing the failure. Here is a list of common failures: Wiring and wiring connectors Control system short circuits due to poorly insulated wire ends. Loose fasteners. Structural failures like bending and breaking due to inadequate reinforcement. Batteries that fall off. Gears that don’t mesh well because shafts are not supported and constrained properly. Machines that are way too complex. Wheels that fall off. Motors that burn out because they are not adequately geared.