It was my first time working with my new Robotics team since I had changed schools after sophomore year. Immediately after the event Recycle Rush was announced at FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) Kick Offs, discussions and ideas started flowing. Several students collected in the school auditorium started sharing their ideas. “Have arms that can move the totes,” suggested one kid. I decided to voice my idea and proposed a lift mechanism on a robot with Mecanum drive terrain, as Mecanum drive promises an extremely mobile and agile robot.
Suddenly, a large amount of opposition flowed my way. “Our team has never had a good experience with Mecanum drive,” explained Graham, one of the captains. “It is a very hard to make it function right and it almost never works the way you would want it to,” he continued. “Sure, it would be nice to have but Mecanum drive comes with a variety of issues, like it needs to have a perfectly balanced robot, perfectly synced …show more content…
“It is a practical decision and it will help us in having a fighting chance in winning against the top teams. We do have solutions to problems you brought up as well, Graham. Having a well-balanced robot is as easy as adding counter weights to the parts that are lighter than the others and having the motors spin at the same speed, perfectly in sync can be accomplished by using encoders. We already have the parts, it’s all about utilizing them and that will give us a great chance to do well at the competition. I did look up other problems as well and have them documented with a practical solution to each. After all, what is the point of being in robotics if we aren’t taking up these challenges?” I stated. A deafening silence filled the air as we all waited in anticipation for the captains to reply. They whispered among themselves for a second and suddenly – “Alright, let’s give it a try,” said Ryan. “It couldn’t hurt,” he
Suddenly, a large amount of opposition flowed my way. “Our team has never had a good experience with Mecanum drive,” explained Graham, one of the captains. “It is a very hard to make it function right and it almost never works the way you would want it to,” he continued. “Sure, it would be nice to have but Mecanum drive comes with a variety of issues, like it needs to have a perfectly balanced robot, perfectly synced …show more content…
“It is a practical decision and it will help us in having a fighting chance in winning against the top teams. We do have solutions to problems you brought up as well, Graham. Having a well-balanced robot is as easy as adding counter weights to the parts that are lighter than the others and having the motors spin at the same speed, perfectly in sync can be accomplished by using encoders. We already have the parts, it’s all about utilizing them and that will give us a great chance to do well at the competition. I did look up other problems as well and have them documented with a practical solution to each. After all, what is the point of being in robotics if we aren’t taking up these challenges?” I stated. A deafening silence filled the air as we all waited in anticipation for the captains to reply. They whispered among themselves for a second and suddenly – “Alright, let’s give it a try,” said Ryan. “It couldn’t hurt,” he