Agile Design For FIRST Robotics2009 FIRST Robotics Conference

Atlanta, Georgia

Greg Marra & Tom Bottiglieri

Greg and Tom

• TheBlueAlliance.net• Boston Regional• College Students in Boston(ish), MA– Olin College– Northeastern University

• FRC Alumni & Mentors– 177 - Bobcat Robotics– 195 - The Cyber Knights– 125 - The Nutrons– 2124 - The X Factor

Agile Development

• Movement in Software Engineering• Values:– Teamwork over Process– Frequent Reflection and Adaption– System Level Understanding– Iterative, Re-usable Designs

• These values can be applied by FRC Teams

Take Home Messages

Design For Change

System Integration

Record and Reflect

Buy It, Don’t Build It

Buddy System

Design For ChangeDesign For Change

Identify Goals And Values• Determine Strategy• Let function drive design– NOT the other way around!

• Minimize “Confirmation Bias”• Don’t shove round pegs into square holes– “Building a good launcher”

vs. “Scoring Points Effectively”

Design For Change

Triple Constraint• Overall robot quality affected by:– Time– Budget– Scope

• You cannot change one without affecting another!

• Which is most important for FRC?!?

TimeDesign For Change

Waterfall Model

• Plan up front, lock down designTHIS IS BAD!

Design For Change

Agile Model

• Implement small piece• Test• Evaluate / Review / Reflect• Repeat

• Repeating this process many times allows you to home in on your design goals.THIS IS GOOD!

Design For Change

Iterative Design / Module Re-Use

• Make small changes, year to year• Use your experience wisely• Sometimes it’s ok to understand the switches

and knobs, but not what's under the hood. – You only have 6 weeks!

• Spend more time solving higher level problems

Design For Change

Liquidity

• Nothing is final, nothing is perfect• Don’t be afraid to fail– Small failures are necessary for iteration

• Be prepared to jump ship– Modular design allows change later

Design For Change

System Integration

System Integration

What is a system?

System Integration

What is a system?

• A Robot is a system of components• Components are also systems• You can repeat this tree out to every last nut

and bolt on the robot.

System Integration

Robot

Mechanical Control

Gear Box Wheels

Power Transmission

Drive

Chain/Sprocket

Electrical ProgrammingManipulator

Chassis

Component Level

System Level

Product Level

Hardware Level

Sub-System Level

Systems Integration

• Integrators are concerned with “The Big Picture”

• Chain is only as strong as its weakest link

System Integration

Record and Reflect

Record and Reflect

Design Notebooks

• What have we accomplished?

• What is in our way?• How can we remove

obstacles?

Record and Reflect

Reflection

• You’re smarter than you were on January 6th.• Hard problems are now easy• Look how much you’ve learned

Record and Reflect

The Buddy System

Buddy System

We > Me

Buddy System

? !

We > Me

Buddy System

Don’t build things you can buy.

Buy It

COTS Drives Interfacing

• FRC Robots are prototypes• Interface points are most common failure

points in FRC robots• There IS value in designing higher level

systems!• Do your research– “Off the Shelf” doesn’t mean “Invincible”

Buy It

Design Simplification

• You solve complex problems by simplifying terms. You can do the same with robots.

• Finding a partial/full COTS solution for a sub-system will allow more time to concentrate on building a rock solid interface.

• For example….

Buy It

Robot

Mechanical Control

Gear Box Wheels

Power Transmission

Drive

Chain/Sprocket

Electrical ProgrammingManipulator

Chassis

Component Level

System Level

Product Level

Hardware Level

Sub-System Level

Robot

Mechanical Control

Gear Box Wheels

Power Transmission

Drive

Chain/Sprocket

Electrical ProgrammingManipulator

Chassis

Component Level

System Level

Product Level

Hardware Level

Sub-System Level

“Real World” Examples• Here are some successful teams who really

“Get It”• Each team exemplifies some Agile Design

methods

Simplicity In Design

• Rhode Warriors – 121

• Minimize build time• Maximize tweaking time

COTS Use• Simbotics – 1114

• They have solved many design problems with “canned” solutions– Drive Base– 2008 Shooter– 2006 Shooter

Module Reuse / Iterative Design

• The Pink Team - 233

2004 2005 2007 2008

Take Home Messages

Design For Change

Systems Integration

Record and Reflect

Buy It, Don’t Build It

Buddy System