I have had doubts about building a robot a getting it mauled to pieces but i have since over come them . My sponsor helped me build my robot piece by piece and with that i feel i have confidence that my robot can stand up to the damage inflicted from other robots .
I also had no technical expertise up until recently . I think if you spend your money on the robot to make it go eg speedo batts etc and harldy put anywork into the chassi of the robot you are bound to fail . In most case its not what you use its how you use it.