Detritus of a Robotics Season

Early on we kept the work space clean and tidy.  Even in mid season we were OK, mostly because we had scheduled tours for interested visitors.  But as we hit weeks five and six standards slipped.  I did go in early many days and try to sort the worst of the clutter and to toss out trash.

Debris and stray hardware from the 2017 FIRST build campaign.

This is actually an important artifact.  It is from last season.  It was a critical part that was predicted to fail.  Our ability to anticipate this and be ready with a fix exemplified our build philosophy: Simple, Strong, Done Ahead of Deadline, Be Ready.  

I keep it hanging on a peg in our work space as a reminder.

Building two robots has increased our costs this year.  I justify it on some level as a Capital Investment.  These aluminum brackets for 80/20 are not cheap, and we ended up buying a bunch.  But they will be scavenged off this year's machines and reused for All Time.

I thought it would be helpful to have a drill template for 80/20.  Something you could clamp on and have pre-set holes for drilling mounting points.  It has not been used much.  But with its carnival colors it has also not been lost yet.  Red and Blue are official FIRST colors.

Found on a work bench.  The signature, indeed, the very meaning is unclear.

Sweeping up on the last build session before the robot went into pre-tournament storage:

Bits of wire, cut off cable ties.  Metal shavings.  Plain old low tech dirt.