These are very broad rules for designing frc robots. They are generally applicable to most situations, but are not hard fast rules.

  • Having the intake and the scoring on opposite sides of the robot generally helps with autonomous
  • Use wheels for manipulating game pieces wherever possible
  • The less degrees of freedom, the easier the robot is to control and the less failure points there are
  • Use swerve drive for maximum mobility
  • Intake is the most important part of a robot usually, and the thing that you spend the most time doing is acquiring game pieces
  • Simple is better than complex
  • Allow yourself room to improve the robot
  • Shooters need to be rigid to be reliable
  • Backspin on a ball being launched increases accuracy
  • The more backspin you have in a shooter, the less range you will have as that energy is being used to spin the ball rather than propel it.
  • Mechanically link mechanisms when you can to make controlling them with software easier and more reliable.
  • Gear your intake to be twice as fast as the robot driving
  • Make your intake as grippy as possible
  • Build compliance with any mechanism that exits the robot frame perimeter, OR make it bulletproof
  • Compliant intakes for rigid game pieces, rigid intake for compliant game pieces