Robotics Space Needed

Starting in the summer of 2010 the Downingtown Educational Center will start the conversion process to the new STEM Academy. We will need to move out of the space to another facility.

The school administration is committed to finding us space but we have not been a priority for them. They "hope" to have a space for us soon. We teach our kids that "Hope is not an engineering strategy".

We have been requesting this decision since last September and are now running out of time. To be ready to start the year for both the middle and high school robotics teams we need to be set up and working in a space that can hold our club and equipment safely. The board plans to discuss this topic at this Wednesdays meeting. We feel it is critical that we send a clear message to the school board that this program is a priority for our community. Since September of 2009 we've been working with the school administration on getting more space. They had been thinking about short term space, we need long term space. (September is less than 90 days away)

We need people to attend the school board meeting on June 9, 7PM at the Downingtown East High School Library. Please wear your shirts!

Parents, it's very important that you attend since nobody cares more about your child's success more than you.

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This page has a description of the space needed by the robotics program.

FRC

Storage Space

We have differing storage requirements for parts of, and for the robots.

We have a great deal of robot parts that fill five 48" x 24" x 60" shelving units. These parts range from nuts and bolts to electronics. While we have open access to the shelves now (they are part of the shop space), they could fit into a closet.

The "in-progress" robots that are being built need to be stored. We have rolling carts that the partially assembled parts are stored on. One robot is the competition robot, the other is the proxy robot. We design and build on the proxy robot, the final assembly is then built and mounted on the competition robot. Each robot can be up to 38" x 28" x 60" in size.

We do store chemicals such as tap lube, paint, spray and tube adhesives. We have Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for all items.

During the entire year we keep four running robots, this years and three from prior years. These robots serve as our demonstration teams when we go to sponsor sites, back to school nights and to community days. The four robots are approximately 38" x 28" x 60" in size. We have constructed a stacked garage to store the robots when they are not in use. The robots will just fit stacked in a room with a 10' ceiling.

The following items could be stored in a non-temperature controlled space:

Raw metal storage. We have a material stacker that holds metal in 10' lengths. The stacker is 5' wide and loaded weighs about ~2000 lbs.

At the beginning of the build season we have the wood materials to build the game play items. This consists of sheets of plywood and 2" x 4" lumber. The game play items tend to be bulky when assembled, a good estimate is 4 parts all about 48" x 36" x 48".

The robot ships in a wooden crate that is 48" x 36" x 70". For most of the year it can come apart and will stack into a slightly smaller area.

Storage security is very important. The robots and parts are very expensive and we don't want items lost or damaged. Our present storage areas are locked when we are not in the shop.

Practice Space

The fields from year to year are approximately 28*55 and has a carpeted floor (about 1/3 of a basketball court. Because many games have lifting challenges (lifting Tetrahedrons or Workout balls) onto goals or over obstacles, the ceiling height needs to be at least 12 feet for part of the field. We have carpet that we can put over a concrete or tile floor.

In 2009 and 2010 we practiced at the DEC facility. The lower cafeteria level was good since the dimensions of the open area was 26*60 with a 14 foot ceiling.

Competition Space

The FRC robots travel to all of the competitions so there is not a need for competition space.

VEX

Active Build Space

Build space is 4-6 kids per team building a robot. In the past we have build on cafeteria tables, giving a team 1/2 of a section (two teams build on a full table). The fixed seating means the tables can be closer together and you are not pushing chairs around.

We expect to have 10 teams with 4 sets of programmers, this means we would need 7-8 full size cafeteria tables.

We did look at space that was 10 10*10 offices. With a small folding table and some chairs that will work too.

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Hard floors work better for dropped parts. (Nuts and bolts can hide in the rug nap)

Storage Space

Existing storage is 5 wire shelving units that fill a 20' wall. There are also two carts that contain the floor tile and the walls of the practice field.

This space is big enough to hold all the parts for 10 teams (our current estimated size)

Practice Space

The field is 12' * 12' and there needs to be at least 3' from the edge of the field to the wall to allow for roboteers to stand around the field. It helps if people can stand completely around the field to see all sides of the activity. We try to keep teams from NOT walking on the foam floor as much as possible.

Event Space

We hold two events a year. The ideal location is a cafeteria space that will allow 32 teams and three or four fields to be set up.