Robot design 101.
1. Know the capabilities of your team and what is reasonable for you to build, not admirable. Being a rookie team a 4 stage lift on a crab drive isn't something I'd recommend unless you built something similar now to get the experience.
2. A typical game has two parts (tubes and minibot, goals and hanging, tubes and ramps, balls and hanging) from there you need to decide what you want to play in the game (not how). This past season as a rookie team our robot had a major in minibot with a minor in tube scoring by completing 1 logo every match on the bottom row. I had feelings that we could do so much more and do the top row easily, but keep it simple and follow rule 1 and you can produce a robot that is in the top 6 scorers at your regional (our robot averaged 31 points a match ranging from 38 at our highest to 26 being our lowest due to our minibot only coming in second place once during the entire weekend). You should decide what you want to make by mid week 1.
3. Prototype and decide the how. Should it grab tubes from the inside or outside, when we score what should the angle of the tube be, how many wheels do we want on our drivebase, etc. Some of these items are easy if the field is flat then do a kitbot on *steroids* for a simple but effective drivebase, if the field has speed bumps then that takes a bit longer to build drivebase prototypes but you get the idea. Usually by the mid/end of week 2 you should be building even if it is just the drivebase.
4. As week 6 approaches keep in mind the time you have left and whether or not you need to change or eliminate a mechanism in order to have a working/competitive robot by your event. Sometimes this means scaling down from top row to mid. Only eliminate an item if by doing it means you will be weak. Making a weak/unreliable arm/lift just so you can make a weak/unreliable minibot is a poor choice compared to making a good, reliable arm with no minibot.
Some wise man once said, "better to do 50% of the task 100% of the time and to do 100% of the task 50% of the time".
If you need any help/advice pre-season or during the season email:
frc3467@gmail.com
Watch this!
http://www.simbotics.org/media/video...itbot-steroids