[Canon reeves]

One good method is to define the problem first. Look at all the things that you could do, crunch the numbers for the points and different strategies. Then come up with at least 3 unique robot designs, it helps if they all focus on the same general strategy. Then make a design matrix, so on top put all of the things that matter, such as ease of build, ease of control, score capability, how much left over time for driver practice, simplicity, and then list the three designs and rate them on each category, then total them up for which to use. Of course you can use this for individual designs and parts of your robot, but it's a pretty good way to start. Also, google drive is beautiful, our BEST team makes a big folder that contains different aspects of the team, but we have a separate folder for robot design, strategy, and what ever else we need to discuss. so if you wake up at 2 in the morning and come up with a revolutionary idea, you can type it up in the drive and share it with everyone, and they can pull it up and look at your drawings while you talk. You can also organize the specific designs this way, listing your different ideas in separate documents, for example a drive train document, a manipulator document, and maybe a sensors or programming. One cool thing we did in BEST this season as well was take minutes, meaning one person records the topics discussed, ideas, and the jobs assigned. It makes things easier whenever someone misses, or for going back and reviewing things you previously discussed, but don't remember well.