Design Glossary#

COTS#

COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf) parts refer to parts that teams can purchase physically or through an online retailer.

Warning

FTC® teams are limited to one degree of freedom (with some exceptions) to COTS parts. Therefore, buying a drawer slide is an allowable part, as there is only one degree of freedom, but purchasing a multi-axis arm isn’t.

However, teams can buy individual parts and assemble them together into a mechanism that has more than one degree of freedom. This doesn’t apply to drivetrain kits.

Packaging#

Packaging refers to the relative size and location of components on the robot. Generally, you want to design and locate (or package) components in the most space-efficient way you can.

STEP file#

A STEP file is a filetype used to store 3D data about a part. It is recognized by different CAD softwares including SolidWorks, Inventor, Creo, etc.