Robotics Week: Production Robots Making Competition Robots — Going META with FIRST Robotics
A shout-out to Team #900, the Zebracorns, one of our local FIRST Robotics teams here in Durham, NC. Sophisticated, inspired, robots, pushing the limits of the game/design challenges. The team recently did a progress review for their key supporters: an evening of robotics-in-action covering planning and work so far this year getting ready for competition. Cool robots for sure.
Take a look into one of these robots … there’s a lot of great technology. But what impresses me is the broad use of digital fabrication in their making. The robots are a produced object —the team typically making several copies, variations, and spares. These projects show the best practices of digital engineering and product development as part of a digital fabrication continuum, just as it would be practiced in a small manufacturing operation.
You see it in the parts, components, and assemblies — additive, subtractive, and integrative — digital fab is embedded in the design, development, and production process with prototyping going on at various scales and in many materials along the way. CNC machined or routed parts, laser cut items, and 3D-printed fittings. It’s about time-to-market and practical production of low-volume product. It’s in the service of producing a final product that a small shop couldn’t do by hand, or that would have taken forever to get out. The tools of digital technology that enable the production of precision, high-quality parts, play a key role in all aspects of the operation.
And I want to add, that of the appeals of FIRST projects is the emphasis on teamwork and developing methods for working together. It’s about being organized, about being entrepreneurial, and about communicating. Zebracorn Team members collaborate with each other, they collaborate with other teams, and they reach into the world to communicate and educate, while still leaving room for individual pride and involvement in the work.
It’s a lot of fun…I enjoyed this presentation of our local team and was wowed by the work these students have done — and, I expect you’ll find the same inspiration from a visit to your local team; where you’re also likely to see amazing technology and best-practice robotic production employed in producing robots. Cheer them on … and learn a lot while you’re doing it.
Suggested Read: A more extended argument for why digital fab brings more opportunity to small and medium size manufacturers than to large-volume, centralized production can be found in: Complexity Comes Free: The Manufacturing Paradigm Shift Powered by Digital Fabrication and in other essays in this series.
Ted writes about the future of small-shop manufacturing and new fabrication technologies. Ted founded ShopBotTools (CNC digital fab equipment),Handibot(smart power tools), and with Bill Young, started the open, small-shop, fabrication match-up & resource, 100kGarages.
