Question: is using the hero bot actually a valid starting point? Because one of the teams at my school is planning to start with the hero bot and improve it from there. Is this viable? Or is it better with most competitions to start from scratch?
I’m of the opinion that it’s always good to start from scratch. I think it provides more freedom to design and innovate and is a good way to experience the full range of the engineering design process.
With a few tutorials in the CAD software of your choice, you can do a lot. When you design from scratch, you’re not doing everything completely from the start. “To make pizza from scratch, you don’t have to invent the whole universe,” You are allowed to take inspiration from some of your favorite teams, and add your ideas here and there.
If you decide to use a hero bot, keep in mind that changes will have to be made. It might feel great to have a working robot at the start, but improving it could be difficult.
TLDR; You seem like a smart person, do whatever you think you can accomplish
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I wouldn’t recommend it, you would need to change pretty much everything on it for it to be competitively viable. That being said, it may not be a bad idea if they’re new to vex and just want to get an idea of the building platform.
The hero bot is good for beginners, however, more advanced teams will probably not want to do this and start from scratch, since if they do they might not want to change their robot the way they want to. I know somebody who is fairly advanced and started a hero bot. They actually got pretty far, but going to the state level they now are rebuilding the entire robot. So keep that in mind.
If they’re new to VEX and don’t know where to start, the hero bot is a great option to get some building experience. Like previous responses said, it’s not likely that you’ll be winning comps with a hero bot.
However, you will be able to drive and possess/score rings, which may not be possible if your sister team starts from scratch and isn’t able to finish their design before comp. I’ve been in matches with a self-designed pushbot and with a hero bot, and I will take the hero bot as an alliance partner every time.
TLDR; if they’re beginners and are concerned about time, the hero bot can be a great option.
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