Constant question I get on demos is “How much does that robot cost?” For things like the protobot we can give a good number, for other robots we’ve gone back and priced it out.
Some of you have build champion robots in the last few years, can you give me a rough estimate what it costs to build it.
Assume you start with the dual control starter bundle for $420, that gives you a controller, transmitter, basic metal, nuts bolts etc. What did you add to make it into the ball flinging machine you have today? Describe the basic robot and what you added and the final total.
I priced out two robots today, and they ended up being more than I expected. While it was less expensive than other kits, it was still a nice chunk of chain.
I’m going to check some numbers and then I’ll post the two robots I counted.
Our workhorse demo robot is a protobot that has been scaled up to fit to be on the large chassis. The rolling wheel gripper is replaced with a tank tread sprocket upgraded with the medium “flippers” for better grip. The shoulder is upgraded to dual motors for lifting. This robot can (has) picked up tennis balls, softballs, cubes from Elevation, green and brown balls from Clean Sweep.
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Dual Starter Kit 420
Tank tread kit 30
Tank tread upgrade 25
2-motors 40
Collars 16
Axle Kit 9
Bearing blocks 5
Small Pack PWM 15
Super chassis kit 34
C Channel 121*35 18
Nicad Battery Kit 49
Total 661
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Upgrades to it would be to add omni wheels on the front to help the steering, that adds $25 to bring the total to $686.
Any competiton is fine, but I’m looking for some of the more complex robots out there. I posted the upgraded protobot that we use for demos, and I’ll post the other complex robot we used for Elevation last year. A picture link would be great!
I work for a non-profit called STEMRobotics.org and what we do is set up new teams. The cost of a “competetive” robot always comes up. We estimate that the robot costs about $800 to build, another $175 goes to registration and two events ($50 each) and another $200 in misc stuff (5 printed tee shirts, tool box with some hand tools, parts box). So for about $1000-$1200 you are a robot team.
I’ve been asked about “Winning” robots. Like Driven, The Jones, Green Eggs, Acme, etc. So I’m asking you for the cost of your robots.
Foster, I think your numbers are right on. If you want to compete and win at the top levels, your budget for a couple of tournaments, starting from scratch, is likely to be US$1,000-1,300. If money isn’t a big issue, I would start a new team with the “Classroom Lab Kit” with software for $749, plus the competition upgrade for $279, plus the sensor kit for $99, plus four extra motors ($80) and a power pack ($50). With that and the fees you mention you would have more than enough parts to make a great robot and go to two local events.
There is no need to spend $1,300 to play, though. This weekend I saw a couple of teams with less than $750 invested in their robot compete credibly. They couldn’t keep up with the “elite” robots at the tournament, but they were in the top 20% of the robots there through a combination of good design and smart driving.
Robots isn’t quite like auto racing, but the “how fast do you want to go?” answer pretty much is “how fast do you want to spend?” You can have a lot of fun with VEX for $500, but teams that want to compete in the tough neighborhoods are going to have to spend some money.
weelll my robot costs 1,608 minus controllers/batteries/chargers/tools/programing kits but im just going by the price of the kits the robot is likely too cost a bit less like 50-100 less and plus everything i subtracted it costs 2,308 but it was also built from scrap metal that is not really the same as the original price
$750 Lab Foundation kit and software (equivalent)
$050 Large Omniwheels
$036 Short slotted angles (2 packs)
$018 Angles, 2X2X35
$080 Motors (4 more than the 4 in the lab foudation kit)
$020 Optical Encoders
$954 Total
There are lots of unused parts from the lab foundation kit, so we might have done it more cheaply if you used the Protobot kit as the base. Because the parts can be reused, the team (2 robots) typically spends about $200/year on new parts. The competition upgrade is probably a cost-efficient way to add parts as well.
While we didn’t feel that we scrimped much on the robot, where we were really handicapped by lack of funds was on the field. We don’t have a competition field, just a few foam tiles, corrugated cardboard field pieces and cubes from welcome kit. Lack of driver practice wasn’t a problem for the local competition, but it really showed at Worlds. However, our programmer placed the team 13th in Programming Skills at Worlds by imagining the field; the robot touched a “real field” for the first time during its first competition run.