Capitol best for Dummies

8/8/2019 Capitol best for Dummies

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CAPITOL BEST

FOR DUMMIES

2003 Handbook


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Terminology Transfusion ................................................................................4WhAT IS BEST?.............................................................................................4HISTORY OF BEST.......................................................................................5

MOTIVATION...........................................................................................5 BEST GOALS..........................................................................................5

PHILOSOPHY IS NOT A SCIENCE...............................................................6WHAT BEST IS NOT...............................................................................6

HOW IT WORKS............................................................................................6Dollars and Sense...........................................................................................7The BEST Student..........................................................................................8How to Be A Good Mentor or Team Coach....................................................9

A Mentor Should.......................................................................................9A Mentor Should Not..............................................................................10

Teaming - It's the Latest Craze.....................................................................10How Do I Recruit Team Members?........................................................10What are the Membership Requirements?.............................................10Setting Team Goals................................................................................11Team Organization.................................................................................11

Getting Started..............................................................................................12Staying on Track with Schedules..................................................................12Head to Head Competition - This Ain't Robot Wars! ....................................12The BEST Award IS THE BEST Award......................................................13Monster Garage or Super Shop?..................................................................13This Ain't No KIT, Charlie..............................................................................14

Consumables.........................................................................................14Returnables............................................................................................14 Robot Box Continuity Check (a good exercise for a student).................18


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Awards and Trophies and Medals, Oh My! ..................................................19The Process is the Key.................................................................................21

What to Do .............................................................................................21Common Pitfalls.....................................................................................22Other Thoughts......................................................................................22

Game Themes - Who thinks this stuff up?....................................................23Dressing for Success....................................................................................23

Men - toring is not just for Men...............................................................23The Team Website - A sanctuary of information..........................................24

How it works... ........................................................................................24Team Administrators.....................................................................................24Help! I Can't Go On! Some Common Excuses...........................................25


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Terminology Transfusion

Sometimes understanding all of the terminology and acronyms associated with a program

can be like getting a full-body blood transfusion. It makes you really weak and tired tryingto remember them all. Well, we've tried to give you a jumpstart (or is that a Defibrillation) inthis section.

BEST= Boosting Engineering Science and Technology = Our Mission

Robot= Machine= The Students Creation

Coach= Mentor= Engineer, Parent, Teacher, Friend = Person interested in helping thestudents learn

Team Sponsor= Teacher Sponsor= A schools faculty sponsor/coordinator for theteam. May not be a school teacher; for some teams, this may be a parent. Someone

responsible for the team.

Hub= Where the Local Contest is Held

Capitol BEST= The Hub encompassing schools within Travis and surrounding counties= This Group

Texas BEST= One of two Regional Contests, pitting Local Contest winners against oneanother. Texas BEST is hosted by Texas A&M University.

The South's BEST= Regional contest hosted by Auburn University. Rookie year 2003.

Regional Contest= See Texas BEST

Kit= A set of returnable items and a set of consumable raw materials, all provided to theteams by the Hub.

WhAT IS BEST?

The BEST competition motivates students by challenging them to build a remotelycontrolled robot that accomplishes a defined task within a competitive setting. Mentors andteam sponsors (usually school teachers) guide student teams through the engineeringprocess. Using only the materials provided, students have six weeks to design, develop,

and test a robot that can outperform their competitors. During this time, the studentsexperience the same problems, challenges, and breakthroughs that an engineering teamencounters when it takes a product to market. In both cases, there are team dynamics,time constraints, material constraints, and pressure from other teams who are trying tosolve the same problem. Placed in a real situation, with real problems, the studentsprovide real (and surprisingly ingenious) solutions. The weeks of hard work culminate in athrilling daylong competition where one team achieves "BEST" performance. The inspiringevent combines the excitement of a high school basketball game with the strategy of achess match and the intellectual challenge of a science fair. The heart of BEST is theexperience of solving a seemingly overwhelming task using simple engineering methods


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and old-fashioned teamwork. Thanks to this experience, students who participate in BESTare better prepared to meet the challenges of the Technology Age.

HISTORY OF BEST

The BEST competition began in 1994 when two Texas Instruments (TI) engineers, TedMahler and Steve Marum, were serving as tour guides at the company's annual highschool Engineering Day. During the tour, the engineers' group watched a video of aMassachusetts Institute of Technology freshman class building a robot. The studentaudience was so excited by the video that the engineers asked, "Why don't we do this inTexas?" After presenting their ideas to TIs Sherman Site Managers, Mahler and Marumreceived enthusiastic approval and North Texas BEST was organized. After the first year'scompetition, other local hubs joined the fun and a state competition (now a regionalcompetition), Texas BEST, was established. The BEST program now has 25 hubs and 2regional contest sites in over TBD states..

MOTIVATION

Legislators and educators say that for the United States to stay competitive in the future,schools must graduate students more skilled in science and engineering, while industrycomplains of a dearth of qualified applicants. The President and Vice President havechallenged the private sector to work together in new ways to improve student learningthrough the use of technology. BEST Robotics Inc. addresses this with the BESTcompetition, taking the intimidation factor out of engineering and making it a sport.

Our intent in this program is to get kids motivated for studies and careers in engineering,science and technology and introduce them to some of the engineering/scientific methodsthrough mentoring by industry professionals and actual hands-on experience. Real-worldengineering is demonstrated while providing an exciting and fun sports-like competition.

More information on the program is provided on the following pages and can be found onour website at http://www.capitol-best.org/.

BEST GOALS

? ? Give every student and every school the same opportunity, regardless of locationor economic situation.

? ? Inspire students to pursue careers in engineering, science, and/or technologyrelated fields of study.

? ? Give students a hands-on experience; the best way to learn.? ? Provide a "contest" that mimics actual science and engineering challenges such

as time-to-market, resource and budget constraints, and design-to-function.? ? Encourage abstract thought, self-directed learning and decision-making

characteristics.? ? Provide students with an understanding of science and engineering principles and

processes.? ? Provide mentoring of students through accomplished professionals from

business, industry and academia.? ? Provide team-building experiences for students.? ? Promote good sportsmanship and ethical conduct within a competitive

environment.


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PHILOSOPHY IS NOT A SCIENCE

The BEST program is not about building robots. It's really about giving students a taste of

what it's like to participate in a product development. It's about teaching them the process,how to work as a team, and how to make trade-offs and decisions for the good of theteam. It's about giving them hands-on technical experience and showing them how toapply their math and science skills to a real-world problem. It's about giving them anopportunity that most of us never had; giving them an opportunity to see what engineers,scientists, and other technical disciplines are challenged with everyday. But even morethan that, the skills that they will learn participating on a BEST team go far beyond themere technical learning. They learn how to set goals and schedules, how to promote theirproduct, and how to communicate effectively with others. All of these skills that can beapplied to virtually any business environment.

We use robotics and the robotic competition as a means to the end. The competition isactually just a bonus of the program, to allow the students to see their creation in action

and feel that great sense of accomplishment knowing that they were solely responsible forcreating it. It's sort of like what Dr. Frankenstein must have felt....well, maybe not exactlythe same. Winning is great and it gives us a great feeling inside....but everyone in thisprogram is a winner and we want to make sure the students understand that.Sportsmanship during head-to-head competition is key to making this happen.

It is important for the students to see their peers and mentors acting with goodsportsmanship, regardless of how well their machine may perform. There are manyfactors that determine how the manine will perform during the competition.

WHAT BEST IS NOT

Just another extra-curricular distraction

A competition for coaches and mentors

A win at all costs program

The students will get the most of the process if they do the work

Mentors and Teachers should help the students realize the students ideas

The six-week development process is more important than the game-day competition

BEST does not stand for Beat Every Single Team

HOW IT WORKS

So, how do we accomplish all of these things with a simple robotics contest? Well, wemirror a real product development. Every team must build a machine to play the samegame (which changes every year). This simulates a real-world engineering environment


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where many competing companies are in constant competition to build similar products fora consumer market. Just like in the real-world, there will be many variations of robotshaving different functions and mechanisms, but all targeted to accomplish the same set oftasks.

The game rules determine what functions the machine will have. This is analagous to aset of customer requirements or a marketing analysis that results in certain functionalitythat is desired by the customer. To be successful, the team must pick functions that will bemost appealing to the customer and satisfy their minimum requirements. In the BESTcase, that means scoring points.

Every team is also provided with a "kit". This "kit" is actually a jumble of miscellaneous rawmaterials. The machine can only be built from these raw materials. This simulates the"parts constraints" and "budget constraints" associated with a product development. Notonly does the product have to perform, but it has to fit within the budget.

Lastly, every team must develop their product (machine) within a given time period, sixweeks in this case. This simulates the time-to-market aspect of a product development.No matter how good a product may be, if it is late entering the market, it may not survive.BEST teams learn very quickly that a very rigorous and tight schedule must be employed

to complete the design process (concept, prototype, design, test, evaluate) in only sixweeks.

To help the students understand how all these factors affect each other, how to maketrade-offs, how to develop technical solutions to problems, etc., each team isaccompanied by adult mentors. Mentors come from many disciplines, but a goal is to haveengineers and scientists from industry work directly with the students to guide them in theirefforts. The students do all of the work, but the mentors simply provide guidance.

Dollars and Sense

One of the founding principles of the BEST program is that it should not cost the teamanything to participate. This is a core principle that has held true for over 10 years now.Unlike some other similar competitions, BEST does not charge any entry fee and providesall of the necessary materials at no cost to the schools. The teams simply provide themeeting location and transportation, both of which can be provided without expense. Itrequires about $1,250 per team to put on the contest. The use of inexpensive radiocontrols and simple building materials keeps the cost down. The no cost principleensures that ANY school or organized team can participate in the contest regardless oftheir economic situation. And that, all of the teams have an equal chance of winning.

As part of the contest, fundraising is allowed and may be used to enhance a team'sefforts. Originality, however, is often better than high cost machine. Remember what weare trying to mimic....the same is true in industry. Most of us (customers) would rather see

simple original low-cost ideas over complex costly ones. It's all about ROI (return oninvestment). Will there be significant payback for the cost required? After all, companiesare out to make a profit.

We love and encourage students to spend the extra effort and really get behind their tasks(including fundraising). It is a great form of publicity for the program. For example, t-shirts,buttons, give-aways, demonstrations for the community and/or other schools, etc. are allconsiderations in the BEST Award....and are highly encouraged. However, spending a lot


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of money doesn't guarantee your success or recognition in BEST. It just doesn't have tocost a lot of money to be good in this program.

The BEST Student

The BEST Contest encourages participation of a wide variety of students having differentskill sets and experience levels. We encourage your team of students to cross multiplegrade-levels. It is important to grow some experience within your team from year to year.Having a senior who has been on the team for 3 or 4 years is a great attribute. Theybecome leaders and are well aware of what is required to be successful. They learn whatis important and what is not and can bring younger students up to speed quicker. Itsalmost like having another mentor on the team.

The contest is design to cover many aspects of an actual business environment. In doingso, there are opportunities for both technical and non-technical roles. Student teammembers dont have to be from the honors physics or math class in order to participate.There are several tasks that can be performed (and are very necessary for success) that

do not require a technical background at all. Because of this, virtually any student in theschool is a candidate for participation on the team. The team sponsor or teacher sponsorhas the ultimate say as to who can or cannot be on the team. We leave those decisions tothem; but BEST does not put any limits on the opportunity.

What BEST does require is that the students do ALL of the work. This forces the hands-on experience that is so important. Students will learn so much more by doing rather thanbeing lectured or simply watching an adult perform a task. Some of the things that thestudent should expect to do are::

?? Review the rules and question all loopholes

?? Perform all of the design and construction

The only exception to this is if there is a safety concern involved (e.g., risk ofinjury). If a student has no experience with a tool or machine, BEST agrees thatan adult should participate in the operation. However, we expect that part of thateffort is to teach the student the proper safety techniques, ultimately allowingthem to take on future tasks, or alternatively, to be taught another method forperforming the same task with lesser risk (e.g., use hand tools instead of powertools).

?? Document all design, manufacturing and testing

The students will learn technical writing skills and how to document the process.Documentation is a key to any product development.

?? Perform and document any associated research tasksStudents will learn how to find answers to their questions on their own.

?? Lead any media and community relations activitiesAn excellent opportunity for them to learn about communication skills, publicrelations and publicity.

?? Conduct industrial espionage


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Not REAL spying, but they should learn how to study another teams design forthe key features that make it work well. This may help them realize how toimprove their own design.

?? Demonstrate sponsor appreciationStudents should be the first ones to thank the Capitol BEST sponsors. It is

because of them that the contest is free to the students. Feedback from thestudents is crucial in the continued success of the program.

Students can expect to learn many things during the contest including?? Engineering Design and Build processes?? How to Apply Math and Science Concepts?? Teaming Concepts?? Brainstorming Methods?? Ingenuity and out-of-box thinking?? Improvement In Critical Thinking Skills?? Alternative ways of solving difficult challenges?? How to Strategize, both offensively and defensively

Some specific skills that students can expect to apply or develop are?? Science and Mathematics?? Shop / Mechanical / Electrical?? RC Hobby and Techie Skills?? Web Interests (html, site design, flash, etc.)?? Writing / Language Skills (team essay, school paper articles, publicity to local

media)?? Organizational and Publicity Skills?? Artistic / Graphic Arts (t-shirt or costume design, team logo, button design, etc.)?? Spirit (bands, cheers, spirit posters, etc.)?? Public Speaking (BEST Award)

How to Be A Good Mentor or Team Coach

A Mentor Should

?? Guide, teach, team with and be an example for students?? Motivate and advise students.?? Provide an understanding of the engineering process?? Explain the importance of schedules and budgets?? Provide technical guidance?? Ensure the students consider all phases and deliverables of the project

?? Explain brainstorming techniques?? Discuss methods for evaluating design concepts?? Describe prototyping methods?? Relay any rules questions to the game committee via the web (or supervise the

students in this activity)?? Distribute answers to all questions to the team?? Ensure that deliverables are turned in on time?? Monitor all fund raising and advertising activities?? Teach teaming concepts


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?? Guide student brainstorming sessions?? Encourage student participation?? Answer technical questions?? Pose questions to make the team think through ideas completely

A Mentor Should Not

?? Take over, Force ideas?? Design the vehicle, Build the vehicle?? Force your own technical ideas on the team?? Make decisions for the team?? Design or build the machine yourself!?? Put down ANY student or the team?? Become uninterested or too busy?? Attempt to discipline any student?? Violate any rules/requirements (be an example)

Teaming - It 's the Lat est Craze

A BEST team consists of students, mentors and teachers/team sponsors all working as anorganized group with specific goals in mind. Being organized is a key to the teamssuccess.

How Do I Recruit Team Members?

First of all, do it early, like start in the Spring when you make your committment to CapitolBEST. The contest starts early in the fall, just after school has started, so there is not a lotof time to spend recruiting students at that time. There are many distractions going on atthe beginning of the school year.

Some recruiting ideas are:?? hang posters around the school?? put an article or ad in the school newspaper?? make "club" announcement?? present the opportunity to your class?? talk to other teachers that may want to be involved, at the very least they can

present the opportunity to their class. Especially good are shop classes, scienceclasses, technical vocation classes, ...

?? direct students to the Capitol BEST website?? put information on the school website, as a "robotics" club or on your personal

page

Capitol BEST tries to provide some recruiting materials such as posters and articles that

will help you in these efforts.

What are the Membership Requirement s?

Capitol BEST does not set requirements for which students can participate. We leave thatup to the school or teacher sponsors.

At the very least, the team will need team members who are committed and willing to stickto their commitment. This job is not going to be easy and requires good teamwork and


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commitment from everyone. You will probably find out which team members are reallycommitted after the first few meetings.

Every team member should have a task they are responsible for; a goal theyconcentrating on (see team organization)

Setting Team Goals

Setting goals for the team is a critical activity that is often overlooked in favor of jumpinginto the fun stuff. Team goals help set the direction. They help determine the team make-up and organization. The goals that you set are what you measure your success by. Theteam should define what they are trying to achieve and do it early. Don't go straight intorobot design and building, only to find out that you bit off more than you could chew. It isimportant for the team to go through the actual analysis phase of the engineering processin order to determine what they can and should do (BEFORE they begin doing it)!

Team Organization

Or What are we going to do with all these kids?

First, understand ALL of the requirements. Make the students read the rules and assesswhat tasks will need to be performed. This burden should not be left up to the TeamSponsor(s) or Mentor(s). Of course, the team sponsors and mentors will also have toknow ALL of the requirements in order to let the students know what they forgot toconsider.

Second, create sub-teams to attack specific tasks or problems that are directly tied to therequirements. Assign student team leaders to run meetings and be responsible for sub-teams. But, everyone on the team should have a voice (emphasize this point as many kidsdon't understand the teaming concept at this point).

Suggested team organization might be:

o Project Management Team?? Schedules?? Tasks

o Requirements/Rules Teamo Kit Teamo Robot Design & Construction Team

?? Drive System?? Manipulator(s)?? Control System

o Promotional Team?? Web Design Sub-Team?? Fundraising Sub-Team?? Table Display Construction Sub-Team?? Community Awareness Sub-Team

o Documentation Team?? Project Notebook?? Photography/ Videography

o Etc.


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Getting Started

It all starts at Kickoff. Bring school sponsors, mentors and subset of the student team tothe Capitol BEST Kickoff. We suggest a subset of the student team simply due tolimitations of the venue, etc. And it gives these few students the chance to be the market

analysis team right off the bat. They are responsible for collecting the requirements fromthe customer and presenting them to the design team.

We suggest that you have your first team meeting before Kickoff. Set your meetingschedules and meeting location with the team. Arrange your schedule based on thesedecisions and then be accountable to your commitment!

At Kickoff, the team will receive the game rules, the kits and see a demonstration of thegame including a prototype robot. Understand the rules before you start any design. Readthe rules thoroughlythen read them again. All questions regarding the game should beposed through the online Q&A at http://www.bestinc.org website.

Be sure to define your team goals (e.g., score 10 points in 30 seconds). Talk about

suggested strategies and alternative methods for achieving the goals. Brainstorm ideas tocarry out the strategies. But most important of all, dont spend 5 weeks getting started!!!

Staying on Track w ith Schedules

What makes a good schedule? Why do we need it?Isn't the schedule of events enough?

Align the schedule with the steps of a typical scientific/engineering process: requirementsassessment, analysis, prototyping, design, construction, testing (includes human factorslike driving), and performance assessment. You don't want to create a microscopic

schedule, just a set of high-level basic tasks.

Create your schedule early and refine it after requirements assessment (which should onlytake a couple of days). Face it, these is a very compressed schedule. You have to createa schedule and stick to it. Yes, there will issues along the way and you will have to iteratesome tasks, that is a natural part of the process. The schedule is to drive you to follow theprocess and not jump straight into cutting out wheels (construction phase)!

The problem that many teams forget is that there are other "parallel" aspects to a productdevelopment (a robot in this case). These are the "other factors" that determine aproducts success.

Head to Head Compet it ion - This Ain't Robot Wars!

Many of you have probably seen the TV series Robot Wars or Battle Bots. Theseprograms have generated a lot of excitement in the area of robotics among the old and theyoung. Students especially enjoy watching robots crash and burn....In fact, usually the firstthing the students want to know in the BEST contest is, "Can we put a circular saw or aflame thrower on our robot?" And the simple answer is always, "Sure, if you can figure outhow to make a circular saw or flame thrower out of materials provided in the kit and don't


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violate the construction guidelines...". This, of course, is impossible and intentional. Thegoal of BEST is to make everyone successful, even those that may not win in a head-to-head competition. The competition is second to the actual challenge of building a machineout of nothing, in a given time period, to accomplish a specific set of tasks. THAT ISaccomplishment, even if another team designed something better or happened to drivebetter on contest day. By the way, this is a good time to interject how important drivingskills are....you can build a kick-butt machine, but if the students can't drive it (or haven'tever practiced driving it), then don't count on doing too well in the head-to-headcompetition. You can build the best Ferrari on the street, but if you can't drive it, you'll be inthe ditch quickly.

The BEST Aw ard IS THE BEST Aw ard

The BEST Award is the most important award in the contest. It is important because it is ameasure of the complete effort. That is, it measures much more than just "how did therobot function?". Its importance is reflected in the regional contest qualification. Itrecognizes the team that best embodies the concept of Boosting Engineering, Scienceand Technology recognizing that

?? Inclusiveness,?? Diversity of participation,?? Exposure to and use of the engineering process,?? Sportsmanship,?? Teamwork,?? Creativity,?? Positive attitude and enthusiasm, and?? School and community involvement

All play significant roles in a teams competitive experience and contribute to studentsuccess in the competition beyond winning top place in a head-to-head challenge. Thesefactors are measured through

?? A design notebook documenting the design process and methodology,

?? A table display demonstrating teamwork, community involvement andpromotion of BEST,

?? Informal interviews assessing students knowledge of the design process andteam activities,

?? Spirit and sportsmanship including conduct, team spirit, camaraderie, and goodsportsmanship.

Make the BEST Award a priority; don't forget about it. Don't let the robot design andconstruction keep you from targeting the ultimate goal. Pulling it off takes a real teameffort.

Monst er Garage or Super Shop?

The school/team sponsor provides a place to work and any tools or shop facilities. Themeeting place could be a classroom, a shop, someone's garage, a business warehouse,etc. It all depends on the team. All of these scenarios have existed at one time or anotherand all have worked fine.

Understand that a shop full of power tools is not required or necessary. These machinescan be built using simple hand tools. In fact, the student will learn a lot by fabricating thatgear by hand rather than using a milling machine. Remember to apply the K.I.S.S.


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principle (Keep It Simple Stupid). The best machines are usually the simplest designs.Plan more time for actual driving it than building it.

This Ain't No KIT, Charlie .

Consumables

The consumable portion of the kit contains the raw materials. This includes materials suchas plywood, plastic, PVC pipe, sheet metal, various hardware and some specialty items.Any and all of this material can be used in the fabrication of the robot. The only limitation isthat all material must come from the kit. The final robot cannot consume any materialsthat were not in the kitnor any morematerial than was originally provided.

Because there is only so much material that is provided, it is important to use it wisely.Emphasize the measure twice, cut once rule. There may be times where a cut is madeincorrectly, parts are lost or broken, etc. If you do run out of or use up the materialprovided at Kickoff, you may replace that item with material that is equivalent. Forexample, if in cutting out your wheels you used up all of your plywood and you still

didnt get the wheels like you want them, they you may purchaseadditional plywood ofthe same dimensions and gradeas provided to your team at Kickoff. You still may onlyuse the amountof plywood (e.g., one 2 x 4 sheet) indicated on the kit inventory list.Any replacement of materials is paid for by the team. Also, Capitol BEST keeps very fewspare parts in inventory. You may ask if we have a replacement part, but it is notguaranteed.

Returnables

The returnable portion of the kit is just that, the stuff that you need to return (unchanged)when the contest is over. These are the items that make-up the control system of the robotand they are reused year after year (until they die....or we sell them to a school that wantsto have there own set to play with). These items include what you will receive in the silvercase, plus a battery charger. Although these items MUST be returned, we are a littlelenient on the timeframe so long as you fill out a Return Kit checkout form so we can trackyou down if we have to! Some teams want to keep their machine together and use it for anadditional few weeks after the contest for demonstration to other schools, to the schoolboard, etc. That's great! It's great publicity for the program. Capitol BEST just has to getthese kits back in time to inventory them, replace any worn or missing parts, and havethem ready for the next year.

There are several parts within the Return Kit. Every kit contains an inventory sheet thatshould be kept with the kit itself. You can use this inventory sheet to make sure that youhave not misplaced any components.


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RETURN KIT INVENTORY

Code Item QtyP Return Kit Carrying CaseE 4 Channel Transmitter 1E Transmitter neck strap 1R Receiver Box 1

E Charger for Transmitter (small) 1R Large Globe Motor 2R Small Globe Motor 2R Speed Controller 2R Robot Box 1E Tether Box 1P Large Zip-Lock Bag Containing: 1R plastic pulley (small) 1R plastic pulley w/ metal insert 1R large plastic pulley 1R shoulder screw 1R loop drive belt (small) 1R straight drive belt (3 foot) 1

R bearings 4R Y-harness/switch/fuse assembly 1R Y-harness 1R Male connector with wire 1R 8 servo extension wire 1R 24 servo extension wire 1R Servo with horn screw 3P Small Zip-Lock Bag Containing: 1R small round servo horn 2R large round servo horn 2R 4-arm servo horn 2R 6-arm servo horn 2E speed controller tweak tool 1

P Film Canister Containing: 1R spare fuse for switch/fuse assembly 1E spare fuse for battery charger 1R servo horn screw 1R rubber grommet 8R brass spacer 8R servo mounting screw 8R 7.2 V 1500 mAhr battery 2P Battery Charger Box Containing 1E Battery Charger (large) 1E Charger Adapter cable (to fit battery) 1

Codes:The items coded with a P are simply used for packaging and may NOT be used onthe robot.The items marked with R can be used ON the Robot.The items marked with E are only to be used external to the Robot. They aresupport items.

Use the following photographs to help you identify the Return Kit parts.


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When removing this equipment from your machine DO NOT CUT any connecting wires UNPLUG them. Especially be careful of the SPEED CONTROLLERS. There are lots ofwires to carefully disconnect ! Please DO completely discharge batteries before re-charging. DO NOT leave charging batteries unattended. If a battery gets hot, UNPLUG IT! DO NOT modify, cut, solder, paint, epoxy, or attempt to repair any item within this caseincluding the Motors and Motor Shafts.

Failure to return, undamaged, ALL return items could DISQUALIFY your team from futureBEST participation.

If a return kit part does because non-functional, is damaged or is missing, please DON'Tattempt to replace it yourself. Notify the Capitol BEST Kit coordinator and we will provideany necessary replacements. Keep in mind, however, that Capitol BEST has a verylimited inventory of replacement parts. So, make sure that the Return Kit is treated withcare.

Robot Box Continuity Check (a good exerc ise for a student)

The Robot Box is used to couple either the Receiver Box or the Tether Box to the servowires. It contains no active circuitry. It is primarily wiring. As an exercise, have a studentperform a continuity check of the Robot Box wiring to ensure there are not opens orshorts. Here is the description of a procedure to do just that.

Use a continuity checker such as an ohmmeter, battery/light bulb, etc., to insure the pinshave internal connections in the Robot Box as described below.

All connections to the Robot Box should be removed such as servos, speed controls, etc.,before the check is made.

The Robot Box to Receiver Box connector pin pairs are numbered 1 thru 10 starting at thesame end of the Robot Box

as Chan 1. Each upper pin and the pin immediately below it are connected together(check).

1. Pin set 1 connects to all red row pins (check).2. Pin set 2 connects to the wire that goes to the robot master switch (check).3. Pin set 3 connects to the W/Y Chan 1 pin (check)4. Pin set 4 connects to the W/Y Chan 2 pin (check).5. Pin set 5 connects to the W/Y Chan 3 pin (check).6. Pin set 6 connects to the W/Y Chan 4 pin (check).7. There is no need to check continuity of pin sets 7, 8 and 9 as they are Dont Use

W/Y pins.8. Pin set 10 connects to all the black row pins (check).


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Photograph of The Robot Box

Aw ards and Trophies and Medals, Oh My!

Capitol BEST works hard to ensure that the students are recognized for theaccomplishments since they are the reason for the program. This goes well beyond justhow they placed in the head-to-head competition. We want to touch every student withsome sort of award or giveaway that they can not only have as a reminder of the greattime they had, but can keep it in a scrapbook, etc. and be able to SHOW that theyparticipated. This could be of great use to them in the future as they pursue a career.

Capitol BEST also wants to recognize: it's sponsors, the schools/team sponsors, and thementors. The school receives award plaques for the team's accomplishment. The mentorsare recognized individually for outstanding efforts and are thanked with other gifts.

A summary of the contest awards we provide, and associated judging criteria are given

here. We even try to add new awards when the opportunity presents itself.

BEST Award 1st

PlaceFor the team that accomplished the greatest interest in engineering, scienceand technology.Criteria: Detailed 100 pt system. See Capitol BEST Award Guidelines.

Competition 1st

PlaceFirst in head-to-head competitionCriteria: Determined by order of finish in the tournament.


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BEST Award 2

ndPlace

For the team that accomplished the greatest interest in engineering, scienceand technology, 2

ndplace.

Criteria: Detailed 100 pt system. See Capitol BEST Award Guidelines.

Competition 2nd

PlaceSecond in head-to-head competitionCriteria: Determined by order of finish in the tournament.

BEST Award 3rd

PlaceFor the team that accomplished the greatest interest in engineering, scienceand technology, 3

rdplace.

Criteria: Detailed 100 pt system. See Capitol BEST Award Guidelines.

Competition 3rd

PlaceThird in head-to-head competitionCriteria: Determined by order of finish in the tournament.

Sportsmanship Award

For the team that exhibits the greatest level of sportsmanship during the contest.Criteria: Outward displays of sportsmanship, grace in winning and losing, and conductand attitude considered befitting participation in sports.

Most Robust DesignFor the machine requiring the least maintenance during the contest.Criteria: Robustness during matches, maintenance required between matches, andgeneral sturdiness.

Most Elegant DesignFor best of show design and execution.Criteria: The machine that makes you say, WOW!

Most Photogenic DesignFor the most eye-pleasing, functioning machine.Criteria: Fit and trim of external components, aesthetic embellishments.

Founders Award for Creative DesignAn award to honor the BEST founders, Steve Marum and Ted Mahler.Best use of the engineering process to include brainstorming approaches,consideration of offensive and defensive strategies, etc.Criteria: Unusual offensive and/or defensive machine capabilities.

Best Dressed AwardMost original game specific team uniforms (usually t-shirts) worn by team membersduring the contest.

Criteria: Judged based on the most creative use of the game concept.

Game Specific AwardA game specific award.Criteria: For the most points accumulated by a team in a single match.

Best Table DisplayFor the best static poster design.Criteria: The table display that best captures the the teams experience and theirpromotion of the BEST concept throughout their school and community.


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Creative Web Award

For the team with the most impressive website specific to the BEST contest.Criteria: The website that best reflects the BEST concept, this years game theme andthe teams experience. Best site map, data organization, navigation, and mostappealing presentation of information.

Outstanding Mentor AwardFor the mentor who best exhibits the characteristics of guidance, knowledge,helpfulness, inspiration, patience, and generosity.Criteria: Judged based on written submittals from student participants.

Outstanding Teamwork AwardFor the team who has exhibited the best teamwork throughout their time together.Criteria: Judged based on written submittals from mentors and teacher sponsors.

Honorable Mention AwardFor the team who was a crowd favorite but consistently just missed getting one ofthe BEST awards, competition awards or machine awards.Criteria: Judges descretion.

The Process is the K ey

Capitol BEST is all about teaching the students about the Design Process. Here are somehints to help you.

Carefully define the different tasks that must be performed to accomplish your goals. Youprobably need something to make your robot mobile. You probably need to pick up andplace scoring objects. Maybe you need to move other objects around.

What to Do

Encourage thought about both offensive and defensive strategies.Do NOT encourage/allow destructive strategies

Brainstorm solutions to each of the tasks that you listed?? Generate as many different ideas as possible?? Dont discount any idea?? Discuss all ideas and narrow down to a select few?? Draw sketches of each of the solutions?? Your sketches should have enough detail so that you know exactly what parts of

the kit you will use. Most ideas seem reasonable until you get to the details.

Choose the best idea and then start making detailed drawings or prototyping the idea.Make sure that you finish building in time to do a LOT of tesing. The best teacher is ourown mistakes but it feels much better if those mistakes arent revealed on game day!

Document everything. Design before you build.Cardboard is a great material for mock-ups.Understand the capabilities of the components (motors, servos, etc.).Test sub-assembliesPractice driving the machine.


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Practice driving some more!

Common Pitfalls

Schedule is the number one issue! You should plan to finish by Mall Day. This includes

testing. Do NOT accept any excuses for not meeting deadlines. This is the biggestchallenge for mentors and coaches!!!

Be realistic.Dont let your team get distracted by pursuing too much. Face it, your robotcant fly! Get the basics done before trying anything elaborate. Most teams need thewhole six weeks just to have a robot that works.

Dont allow your wheels to fall off!! All designs need a good way of attaching the wheelsto the motors. You should be testing your drive system before week three (Test Drive)..Make it easily adaptable to multiple wheel alternatives. Dont accept a design thatrequires constant maintenance. Remember that the only power tool allowed in the Pits is adrill/driver! Make maintenance simple. And dont forget to bring spare parts with you.Make several spares of key machine components.

Other Thoughts

Robust Design for BEST means:?? Simple can be built and understood.?? Flexible allows different strategies.?? Reliable durable, withstands the competition.?? Minimum level of driver skill required.?? Forgiving of driver error.

Be aware of the specifications of the Kit components (motors, speed controllers, etc.).

Encourage the Measure Twice, Cut Once principle.

Dont forget about Maintainability!

Construct a portion of the field for testing.

Think about portability. You will be lugging 24 pounds around with you all day.

You may bring several machines with you to practice days (Test Drive, Mall Day) but onlyONE machine to the contest!

Six weeks is not a long timeuse the following as a guide.?? Week 0 Organize team?? Week 1 Study rules and materials, develop a strategy

?? Week 2 Build a running platform, field mock-up?? Week 3 Preliminary design test your ideas?? Week 4 Finalize the design and build the machine?? Week 5 Complete build, fix problems, practice?? Week 6 Fine tuning, demo the machine, practice


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Game Them es - Who thinks t his stuff up?

Every year a new game is born. The organizers of BEST design a game that will bechallenging and fun for the students. The game is prototyped and the organizers put ontheir own little competition to weed out all of the problems and issues that may exist. This

results in refinement of the design and game rules. To make the game more fun andapplicable to a real-world situation, the organizers come up with a game theme or gamestory. This theme defines what situation the game is simulating. This allows theparticipants to really get into the spirit of the game and learn something new along theway. For example, the game Toxic Troubles in 1998 was centered around the idea ofusing robotic machines to remove toxic waste from a contaminated site. This is a realscenario you can find and learn about in the world today. Other game, like 1996'sDynamite Duel scripted a story about an abandon mine that contained unstable dynamitesticks that were left behind years ago and needed to be removed safely. The ONLY wayto do it safely was to design a robot to pick them up and remove them.

The theme or story inspires the students to really go crazy with the "BEST Dressed" awardand team spirit portion of the "BEST Award", donning costumes, bringing mascots, writing

theme songs, etc.

Dressing for Success

Have your team dress alike. This allows the judges to easily identify which studentsbelong to the same team. Try to dress appropriate to the theme of the game. Many teamsget t-shirts made. You can take that a bit further if you want. The BEST Dressed Award ismore than a t-shirt contest. It is (***insert criteria***).

Some ideas to consider:* Design team hats

* coordinated t-shirts* team vests* team buttons* team stickers* develop a mascot costume for a team member* everyone dress as a different character fitting the theme* funny props like super-shoes

Be original!! And be fun!!

Men - toring is not just for Men

The majority of engineers are men....but there are plenty of excellent women out there inthe science, engineering and technology fields. Capitol BEST strongly encourages thesewomen to participate as mentors and become role models for the female studentpopulation. It is also very impressive to the guys. Let's break the stereotype and put menin their place......

Men may be the head of the household..but women are the neck that turns the head!


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The Team Website - A sanct uary of inform ation

You have an opportunity to develop a team website during the Capitol BEST contest. Weeven give an award for "BEST Web Design". This is a great exercise for studentsinterested in web design or programming, or those who just want to get their feet wet.

Some teams have not bothered to implement a team website because they couldn't findanyone to host their page. Sometimes there can be lots of red-tape associated with gettingsome space on the school district server.....hmmm...imagine that! Well, those days areover. You don't have to get space from your school. You don't have to use your teacher'spersonal space. You don't even have to find yourself an ISP that will sponsoryou....because Capitol BEST has done it for you. Thanks to our own internet serviceprovider, WebSmart Internet, every team participating in Capitol BEST is provided up to10 Mb of space free of charge.

How it w orks...

Capitol BEST will setup every participating team with a sub-domain under the CapitolBEST domain (capitol-best.org). The sub-domain will be referenced by the schoolname

(no spaces), as follows:

schoolname.capitol-best.org

Using this sub-domain address, you can use a standard FTP program to upload files toyour web space. You can write raw HTML or use a webpage editor such as MS Frontpageto create your webpage. (Note: FrontPage extensions are available on the server). Youcan feel free to create subfolders, use powerful graphics, store pictures, create flashanimation and even develop cgi-bin scripts.

When creating your webpage, name your starting page "index.html". This is the defaultfilename that a browser will search for when you enter the web addressschoolname.capitol-best.org.

While your website is under construction, you will need a username and password toaccess it. This information will be provided to you at Kickoff. This will keep other teamsfrom seeing your ingenious design or trying to steal that

cool graphic you designed. After the web design contest judging, the password protectionwill be removed from all of the websites allowing anyone to visit. Finally....yourmasterpiece will be unveiled!

Be aware that when the web design contest deadline comes, password protection will beremoved and you will no longer be able to update your page. So, don't wait till the lastminute to work on you design. Get it finished well ahead of the judging deadline.

Teams, of course, are NOT REQUIRED to utilize the webspace provided by CapitolBEST.

Team Administrators...

Every team must designate a Team Administrator. It is a good idea to have a couple ofTAs. These may be adults or students. It is good to let a student take on this role with an


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adult as backup. The responsibility of the TA is to enter all team information into the BESTRobotics, inc (BRI) on-line database. The database is accessible through the BRI websiteat http://www.bestinc.org. So how do you become a team administrator? I'm glad youasked...

First, you must create yourself an account on the BEST Robotics website,http://www.bestinc.org. To do this, click on the register new account link on the main page.Fill out the form and submit. Students and others that ARE NOT going to be TeamAdministrators DO NOT have to create an account on the BEST Robotics website. PleaseDO NOT do this as it clutters the site with unnecessary accounts.

Note: if you have generated an account in the past, it likely still exists. If you dontremember, ask Capitol BEST to check for you. We need to the know the name you wouldhave registered under. This is a good reason to use an actual persons name duringregistration, rather than a team name or school name.

As a result of registration, you will receive an email (at the email address that you specifiedduring account setup) giving you directions on how to enable your account. This willinvolve clicking a link in the email that will cause the account to enable.

Once your account is enabled, you must now send an email to the Capitol BEST hubdirector, Greg Young, at [email protected] and send the name that you usedwhen registering the account. Not the username that you were assigned or selected, butthe name (first and last) that you entered on the registration form. You must also includethe school/team that you represent.

Capitol BEST will enable the the account with the necessary Team Adminstrator accessrights and send a reply email to you indicating when that access is enabled. When youreceive this reply email, you will be ready to start entering your team data into the BRI on-line database.

To enter and manage your Team Information online, select the Manage My Teams linkfrom the My Tools pulldown menu. This will bring you to a page having multiple tabs from

which you may enter various information regarding your team.

Please enter this information about your team as soon as possible, regardless of whetheryou are advancing to Texas BEST or not. We will use this information in the contestprogram.

Help! I Can't Go On! Some Common Excuses

I don't have the time....

Recruit some others to help you. Don't TRY to everything on by yourself. This is a team

and there are many things to be accomplished. You NEED help. If you are a teacher,recruit some other teachers (science, math, shop, etc.) to get involved also. Sharing theload makes things easier on you. If you are a mentor....you will get out of the programwhatever you put into it. The time you spend with the team will be completely up to you.This is the reason BEST attempts to assign multiple mentors to a team so that they canrotate and split their time effectively.


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Our team is too small...we can't recuit any students....

Teams have been successful with as few as 3 students. Granted those were some prettycommitted students! But, it is possible. That team went on to win that hub's BEST Award.Don't be intimidated by a large team. Don't think your team has to be huge. In fact, a verylarge team (30+ students) is going to be hard to manage. But it can be done. We've seenteams with over 50 students. It's all about organization.

We don't have any tools....

Beg, borrow and steal (ok...don't steal) whatever you need. Get your parents to donate theuse any tools they may have. The machines can actually be built with a few basic tools.While a complete set of power tools or a shop makes us think we have an edge...it's reallythe design of the machine that gives the edge. The simplest machines often perform thebest. It make take a little longer to file down a piece of metal by hand rather than using ashop grinder, but it also can be a very good lesson in what it takes to manufacture parts.And when fabrication is done in this manner, the students will be MUCH more careful withthe machine!

The school won't allow us to use a bus.....

Then carpool. Once again, draw on parents, mentors and other supporters of the team tohelp with transportation.

Documents

Capitol best for Dummies