#all #documentation #standard

1 Purpose

The purpose of this document is to define the minimum structure of the team, and rules common to all team members.

2 Scope

All team members.

3 Activities

Grayson Robotics is an organization for teaching high school students how to build and operate large (150 lbs), semi-autonomous, mobile robots. We conduct our operations, communications, fundraising, and engineering activities to accomplish this. Participation in the First Robotics Competition (FRC) serves as the primary reason for building robots. Additionally, other projects that require similar engineering and manufacturing capabilities may also inform the organizations structure.

3.1 FRC

FRC challenges teams of young people and their mentors to solve a common problem. Teams build robots from both the kit and the parts they design themselves. The official FRC season starts with event registration in the fall, proceeds from the Kickoff in early January through the primary robot design and build period in February. District qualifying events occur from late February through early April, followed by the state championship, and culminating at the FIRST World Championship events.

3.2 FRC robot project management

The Strategy Department and Systems Engineering Department (SE) shall maintain the standard for managing the design and build process for our FRC robot: S11-FRC_Robot_Project_Lifecycle.

4 Team goals

1. Provide a practical engineering education.
2. Maintain an interdisciplinary approach to engineering that prevents miscommunication between engineering departments.
3. Demonstrate comprehensive quality control in all engineering and manufacturing activities.
4. Implement a Quality Management System as outlined by ISO 9001:2015.

4.1 Goals for FRC participation

1. Compete in an official FRC season without losing a single match.
2. Operate the most reliable robot at any event we attend.
3. Maintain the most comprehensive knowledge base and documentation of any other FRC team.

4.2 Educational Strategy

A mentor shall not teach a student something in a way they wouldn’t teach another mentor. Team members shall divide tasks between students and mentors such that students gain the most new knowledge from the tasks they complete. In the absence a specific safety concern, students have the first choice for what they work on. Mentors support this by providing students with the instruction necessary to complete their tasks and completing other tasks where necessary.

Instruction should not rely on rote memorization. Instructors should focus on teaching students how to find and document correct information for future use. Departments may use tests to assess a members ability to recall information needed when using a reference is impractical. For example: operating a robot in a competition match or making a repair between matches, where there's no time to reference a document.

5 General calendar

We define our general calendar by dividing the year into three phases:

1. Build phase
2. Post-Season
3. Preparation

5.1 Build phase

The build phase starts at the FRC season Kickoff and runs until one week after the end of the FIRST world championships.

This is where we build the robot and compete.

5.2 Post-Season

The Post-Season starts at the end of build season and runs until the start of the next Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) school year.

The is where we reflect on and improve on internal process and culture.

5.3 Preparation

The Preparation phase starts at the beginning of the GCPS school year and runs until the FRC season kickoff in the following year.

This is where we recruit and train new team members and otherwise prepare for the upcoming season.

6 Membership

6.1 Reading requirements

All team members shall read and understand the following:

1. FIRST Youth Protection Program Guide.
2. This document: S0-Organizing_Manual.
3. Every Standard scoped for all team members.
4. Every Standard scoped for the Departments they intend to work in.

6.2 Student membership

Team membership for students is split into two categories:

1. Rookie members.
2. Full members.

Mentors are exempt from these requirements.

6.2.1 Requirements for Full student members

1. Pay full member dues.
2. Participate for at least two concurrent phases of the General calendar.
3. Read and understand all Standards that apply to all team members.
4. Contribute to the S1-Team_Notebook.
5. Otherwise meet the requirements to become a Rookie member.

6.2.2 Requirements for Rookie student members

1. Pay full member dues.
2. Trained to find and reference the S1-Team_Notebook.
3. Read and understand this document.

6.3 Member dues structure

1. The Head Coach shall collect member dues.
2. Dues are collected once per-competition event.
3. Base dues are $60.
4. Dues are reduced to for team members who help facilitate the Summer Engineering Camp.

7 Departments

Team members shall organize all work as the responsibility of one or more departments. A department is a subset of team members who are responsible for a subset of the work required for the team to meet its goals. Grayson Robotics shall staff these departments:

• Strategy
• Intelligence
• Operations
• Safety
• Information Technology (IT)
• Manufacturing
• Outreach
• Marketing
• Systems Engineering (SE)
• Mechanical Engineering (ME)
• Electrical Engineering (EE)
• Programming

7.1 Strategy Department

The Strategy dept. exists to create plans for how the team will meet its goals.

The Strategy dept. shall:

1. Develop a Team Strategy for achieving Team goals.
2. Develop the Competition Strategy for the FRC season:
   1. Decide which district qualifier events to attend.
   2. Decide how to prioritize different scoring methods.
   3. Decide what data to collect about other teams for use during competition.
3. Set the schedule for the FRC robot design effort.
4. Mediate scheduling conflicts for other departments.

7.2 Intelligence Department

The Intelligence dept. exists to collect and organize facts about other teams.

The Intelligence dept. shall:

1. Gather quantitative data about the performance of other FRC teams’ robots at competition.
2. Gather qualitative data about the operations, strengths, and weaknesses of other FRC teams’ robots.
3. Gather information about the infrastructure, materiel resources, and engineering and manufacturing capabilities of other FRC teams.

7.3 Operations Department

The Operations dept. exists to provide general services to other departments.

The Operations dept. shall:

1. Carryout or oversee all facility, equipment, and tool maintenance.
2. Control inventory of all tools, parts, and other consumables.
3. Carryout or oversee the operation, maintenance, and transport of FRC robots.
4. Create a plans for all team travel including at minimum: transport, lodging, food, and daily schedule.
5. Design and manage the competition pit and the Pit Crew.
6. Requisition supplies purchased with team funds.

7.4 Safety Department

The Safety dept. exists to ensure that safety is never compromised.

The Safety dept. shall:

1. Create and audit safety standards.
2. Audit the safety of processes, standards, and tools produced, maintained, or operated by other departments.
3. Compel team members to cease unsafe behavior.
4. Compel other departments to remove or edit unsafe documents.
5. Maintain the Safety Manual.
6. Compel other departments to assist with safety audits and as needed.

7.5 Information Technology Department (IT)

The IT dept. is the teams computer services provider and is responsible for managing all computer infrastructure.

The IT dept. shall:

1. Maintain digital communications infrastructure.
2. Maintain computers controlled by Grayson Robotics.
3. Train team members to use computer hardware and software.
4. Maintain the server infrastructure that supports the Grayson Robotics website.
5. Update the firmware and software images for FRC robot components.

7.6 Manufacturing Department

The Manufacturing dept. handles all metalwork, woodwork, and mechanical assembly. The Manufacturing is not responsible for electrical assembly.

The Manufacturing dept. shall:

1. Research & develop in house mechanical assembly and fabrication capabilities.
2. Create and manage any documentation required to outsource machining to a sponsor.
3. Develop custom tooling for machining and assembly.
4. Build FRC field elements
5. Create processes the Mechanical Engineering dept. can use to prove that their designs are practical to manufacture

7.7 Outreach Department

The Outreach dept. is responsible for recruiting sponsors, students, and mentors, and managing relationships with current sponsors.

The Outreach dept. shall:

• recruit students, mentors, and sponsors 10
• fulfill sponsor requirements and ensure other departments do so as well
• plan events
• requisition supplies and services from sponsors
• approve designs that the ME dept. wants sponsors manufacture

7.8 Marketing Department

The Marketing dept. is responsible for the team brand and producing print and digital marketing materials.

The Marketing dept. shall:

• create website & social media content
• create all advertising materials
• take photo and video of team activities
• create and maintain a standardized brand

7.9 Systems Engineering Department (SE)

The Systems Engineering dept. is responsible for designing the FRC robot and other systems where two or more other departments must work together to design the system. The ME, EE, IT, Programming, & Manufacturing Departments don’t design the robot. These departments are responsible for designing sub-systems in conformance with the specification created by the SE dept.

In the course of creating the system specification the SE dept. shall consult the other departments and seek final approval from them.

The Systems Engineering dept. shall:

• design the FRC robot
• write requirements for all systems designed by the team
• enumerate the initial requirements for the FRC robot based on the competition strategy and the game manual
• track new FRC robot requirements as they are discovered over the course of the build season
• mediate design conflicts between other departments
• obtain approval from the relevant department when making a decision that affects their responsibilities

7.10 Mechanical Engineering Department (ME)

The Mechanical Engineering dept. designs and tests mechanical systems.

The Mechanical Engineering dept. shall:

• design and test mechanical components
• produce and version control mechanical CADD
• adhere to the system specification and requirements created by the SE and Strategy departments
• adhere to the requirements and standards of the EE dept. where applicable
• prove that their designs are practical to manufacture either:
  • in-house by using existing Manufacturing and Electrical dept. standards
  • or by outsourcing manufacturing to a sponsor

7.11 Electrical Engineering Department (EE)

The Electrical Engineering dept. designs, builds, and tests electrical systems.

The Electrical dept. shall:

• design and test electrical components
• assemble the electrical system on FRC robots
• produce and version control electrical CADD
• research and develop electrical manufacturing and assembly techniques
• adhere to the system specification and requirements created by the SE and Strategy departments

7.12 Programming Department

The Electrical Engineering dept. designs, builds, and tests software systems.

The Programming dept. shall:

• design, develop, and test all software components
• version control all software
• adhere to the system specification and requirements created by the SE and Strategy departments

8 Safety

For any area where someone may be:

• fabricating or assembling anything
• machining parts
• cleaning debris generated from machining
• operating a robot

the minimum required attire and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are:

• safety glasses
• pants
• closed-toed shoes
• hair tied back

8.1 Read the FIRST FRC/FTC safety manual

All members shall read and adhere to the guidelines in the latest version of the FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge Safety Manual.

8.2 Maintain an internal safety manual

1. The Safety Department shall maintain the Safety Manual.
2. All team members shall read and understand the Safety Manual.

9 Code of conduct

Team members shall adhere to the following:

• Always act safely, including during any official or unofficial meeting, traveling to team events, using remote communications, and during competitions.
• Obey all team and event safety rules.
• No horseplay in the shop or competition pit.
• All Students shall check for updates on all team communications platforms daily.
• Any member traveling with the team to any event shall always have a cellular device on their person.
• No running anywhere anytime.
• Don’t leave your workspace without notifying at least one mentor prior.

10 Projects

Projects organize non-standard or non-recurring work, and coordinate major efforts between departments.

Team members shall use the project process where any one of the following are true:

• they require a budget, scare resources, or a requisition of supplies
• they expect work to go on for more than one week
• different departments need to coordinate

S5-Project_Process describes this process.

11 Roles

A Role is a set of tasks and the resources made available to team members to complete them. Grayson Robotics creates roles for projects or as part of a process defined by a standard. This section defines all roles that the team must fulfill at all times or during the entire competition season.

11.1 Scouts

1. Scouts shall gather qualitative and quantitative data about the capabilities and performance of other FRC teams’ robots competing in the same events as Grayson Robotics.
2. The Strategy dept. shall determine what data scouts collect.
3. The Intelligence dept. shall select members to be scouts.

Scouts need not go to competition in person if gathering quantitative data on robot performance.

11.2 Pit Crew

The Pit Crew are team members from different departments who perform maintenance on the robot between matches.

1. Each department shall determine which members may need to go to the pit on a per-competition basis.
2. Pit Crew members shall create a procedure for managing the pit prior to the first competition of the year.
3. The drive team are necessarily pit crew.
4. Each member of the Pit Crew is not necessarily needed in the pit at all times.

11.2.1 The Pit Crew must follow the schedule

Members of the Pit Crew shall attend competition and arrive promptly when the doors open, unless otherwise stated by the schedule put forth by the Operations department.

11.3 Drive Team

The Operations dept. shall form the drive team through the following process:

1. Members must pass an assessment of their basic ability to perform their respective role.
2. Members must prove their ability to perform their respective role without incurring penalties.
3. Final selection is random.

The Strategy dept. shall define the requirements for passing the exam. The drive coach shall be a member of the Strategy dept. unless no strategy dept. members pass the assessment.

Drive team membership shall stay the same during an ongoing competition season unless:

• a member resigns
• a member requests to be leave due to an emergency
• a member violates the Code of Conduct as outlined in Section 8
• a member violates a safety rule
• a member is late to more than one (1) match

12 Internal communications

12.1 The Team Notebook

The Team Notebook (where this document lives) is an Obsidian notebook hosted on Codeberg.

See: S1-Team_Notebook for details.

12.1.1 Use memos

Memos live in the Team Notebook.

Team members shall write memos for short public notes, proposals to add document to the Team notebook, and shorter tasks that do not require Projects but would still benefit from progress tracking.

12.2 Band

Used as a calendar and for general remote communications.

13 Meetings

Team members shall propose a meeting via a communications visible to all team members. Typically, team members propose meetings via Band.

A team members’ meeting proposal shall include the following information:

• Date, time, location, and other pertinent logistics.
• List any specific Projects they intend to work on.
• What departments or individuals they think should attend

Meetings require the approval of at least one mentor and anyone expected to complete work at the meeting. The team member making the proposal shall add the meeting to the Band calendar after receiving approval.

13.1 Safety briefing

Team members shall give a safety briefing for all persons who haven’t visited Grayson HS before.

The briefing shall include the following:

1. exit locations
2. fire extinguisher locations
3. fire evacuation plan & evacuation map locations
4. fire alarm activation panel locations
5. first aid kit locations
6. Locations of other safety equipment if available.
   1. For example: eye wash station and emergency shower.

13.2 Use the Band calendar

1. Team members shall mark meetings on the Band calendar no less than one (1) week in advance of the meeting date.
2. For weekend meetings, team members shall RSVP for the meeting no less than one (1) hour prior to the start.

14 Procurement

1. All team members shall read and understand: S10-Procurement_Manual.
2. The Operations Department shall maintain the Procurement Manual.