[Michael Blake]

Originally Posted by thenomnivore

For next year's robotics season, the team decided to change almost everything entirely about the team. Our showmanship, that way we dress, etc. One of the most important and most talked about issues we face is the design process. For the last couple years, what we have done this process was we would have 2 teams making 2 robots, choose which one is the best, go from their but by the end of the season, it seems like a waste of time because of the amount of time we spent of each robot and not one. I'm asking any team for advice or how their team does their design process and how well does it work. Also, we are trying to get our mentors to have less say in the final robot because usually, the most important task almost 100% becomes a project of the mentors.
Any input and ideas are helpful. Thanks

You may want to start with John V-Neun's (148 Robowranglers) white-paper on the Design Process...

http://people.clarkson.edu/~jcarroll...R.20091204.pdf

We're a 2nd year FRC team who won the Engineering Inspiration award and seeded in the Top 8 at our two regionals. Plus, we seeded 5th/Captain on Archimedes and made it to the Semi-Finals... 15 months ago, we didn't know a "Digital Sidecar from a Railway Car!"

Our entire approach/process is based on this document...

EXPERIENCE, HARD WORK, recruitment, combined with this _invaluable_ knowledge that JVN has shared is what has enabled our team to progress rapidly...

Hope this is helpful to you and your team...