This year, we have a fully functioning bot that can so far pick up the ball very efficiently and pass the ball well also, as well as score in the one point goal. We cannot shoot yet because the latch has not been fully developed yet, in terms of how and where to mount the piston and latch. In 2013, we were just beginning to build the shooter based on the linear shooter design found to be effective by many teams. In 2012, the team was also just beginning to CAD the robot as a whole by the end of Week 3.
Overall, this year, we have been consistently multiple weeks ahead of past years, but is this all because of the engineering design process, or much better machining capabilities in terms of skill, turn-around time, and experience?
This is the big question to ask now, and continue asking throughout the rest of the build season. While time was the biggest question for this project when the project began, it seems as though time has not had a big effect this year. The major changes between this year and the past two years were preparing this year for build season, access this year to a more complete machine shop, and a little more funding. The preparation had consisted of what everything does, how to use tools, and what are structures/concepts everyone should know or understand and be able to apply during build season. This preparation has allowed us to jump right into the build season, and not waste the first two weeks trying to learn how things work. Also, it has taught us how to research/find concepts and ideas that work, just by looking at bots from past year's games (2008). The mostly complete machine shop has allowed us to quickly manufacture/make our own parts with a 10 minute turn-around time (time it takes for finished design to become a part), where as before we had to rely on a company that took a couple days. This means we can rapidly prototype and test concepts just to see if the concepts work, which speeds up the preliminary design phase immensely.
Overall, so far, the time has not had an effect due to those two major factors that have changed, where as time was a big factor when we spent more of it waiting or doing things we could do during the offseason. From current observations, the four major factors that effect the engineering design process are time resources (machining and so on), and experience/knowledge, and money being one with a little less influence for FIRST. So far, we have plenty of each but time, but the lack of time is having a negligible effect on everything.
In terms of how each of the phases are being put together, the conceptual design phase has been the biggest in terms of continuing to drive everything. The preliminary design phase and the detailed design phase seem to basically blend into each other, and, while there is a very clear boundary between preliminary design and conceptual design, there is not a very clear boundary between preliminary design and detailed design in practice.
Because everything is going quickly due to time, each of the phases don't really need to be lengthened or shortened. If there is extra time, I feel, so far, only completing the conceptual and preliminary design phases, the conceptual design phase is actually the one to keep steady or add more time. Of the three phases, it seems as though the preliminary design phase is the one that can be cut down upon. So far, the team has spent around 1/6 of the time in conceptual design phases, and 1/3 of the time in the preliminary design phases for the build season, and will end up spending 1/2 the build season on detailed design plus more. Most of the cutting or adding depends on the other factors, primarily machining and experience, more than time, although both end up relating to time.
As a wrap-up, the use of the engineering design process has been huge, and, while it may not be responsible for all of the progress happening, it has still been a big factor in why the team is constantly ahead by a couple weeks.
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