Preparing for Worlds/Torture testing your robots

[Fido488]

Hello VEX community,

I was curious how teams prepare their robot for worlds.

Last year we were the last team in the country to qualify for Worlds and didn't have very much time to prep. We only had 10 days to pull everything together.


Worlds is the ultimate test of your robot. You have to keep your robot running for three days. How do you prepare for a problem that you can't think of?

We were very lucky last year and didn't have any massive problems but who knows what could happen this year

Just looking for any ideas the community might have.

-Fido488

[LegoMindstormsmaniac]

Our team hosts a pre-World Championship scrimmage, where teams from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, or anywhere at all come to just have a fun day of matches. Teams have pit areas to work on robots, and line up to go onto fields, and it's a really laid-back and fun event. It seems to really put the robots to the test, running in many matches back-to-back if there are gaps sometimes, and it really gets us lots of driving practice, along with robot fail-testing. We hosted this event last year, and are holding it again this year.

~Jordan

[Godzilla]

Fido488, you should host a Pre-Worlds Scrimmage for teams in the Northeast

[banditofernando]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Fido488, you should host a Pre-Worlds Scrimmage for teams in the Northeast

Would your teams come? Do you think all the other ones would come??? It is a total possibility, and we could invite Trinity, even Green Egg if they wanted practice.

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by banditofernando

Would your teams come? Do you think all the other ones would come??? It is a total possibility, and we could invite Trinity, even Green Egg if they wanted practice.

Yeah we would totally come. 5 hr drive right? No problem

[banditofernando]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Yeah we would totally come. 5 hr drive right? No problem

haha, I'll ask our mentors about it, they may be wiped out by the other meet we held this year, but it might work.

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by banditofernando

haha, I'll ask our mentors about it, they may be wiped out by the other meet we held this year, but it might work.

Actually, it's a 4 hour drive! Nothing red bull and coffee and can't fix!

[AnotherRoboMom]

Originally Posted by LegoMindstormsmaniac

Our team hosts a pre-World Championship scrimmage, where teams from Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, or anywhere at all come to just have a fun day of matches. Teams have pit areas to work on robots, and line up to go onto fields, and it's a really laid-back and fun event. It seems to really put the robots to the test, running in many matches back-to-back if there are gaps sometimes, and it really gets us lots of driving practice, along with robot fail-testing. We hosted this event last year, and are holding it again this year.

~Jordan

Although not torture testing robots, this was posted today for your event. See you there

>>"Warm Up to Judging at the Championship"
The audience for this session is mentors, students, and parents so consider sending a representative from your team. We will cover how the teams can prepare for judging and hints for how the students can serve as great ambassadors for their team. *Please refer all questions about the 2012 judging procedures at the World Championship to the "official" threads in the VEX forums.*

Jenny Beatty – has been a volunteer for VEX & RECF for 5 years, helping with events in the Mid-Atlantic area, and has served in the past as a National Judge Advisor for the VEX World Championships. <<

[Men_Of_Steel]

I think nationals is a decent test for robots. It's also a multiple day tournament.

[The VEX Raptors]

We have tightening sessions, lots of practice matches, and we generally baby our motors.

We like scrimmages too, but at the pre-worlds scrimmage we went to last year, our robot was the only one that worked. Without an ally, we beat a local high school team and half of the Michigan State University college team about 40-7.

We bring all of our parts and a few extra motors to Worlds in case something breaks. Our robot's been pretty reliable at tournaments. It drives fine as long as there are breaks between matches (it can play 3 matches back to back, but after that it starts overheating more).