[Edxu]

On 610, we've traditionally done 2-3 days of strategy discussion to create a list of needs and wants for our robot (eg this year: cross low bar, cycle fast, cross 6/9 defense options quickly and hang to name a few).

After that, we brainstorm prototypes as a group, then split off and work on creating/testing the prototypes. Each Friday this build season, we held a review on the past week's work, slowly cutting down the number of prototypes until we arrive at something that we're happy with.

This process takes varying amounts of time depending on the complexity/difficulty of the design. In 2015, we were prototyping basically until Week 4 IIRC, prototyping drivetrains (don't do this ever) and our cangrabber.

In 2016, we found that prototyping took far too long in 2015, and we prototyped for around the first two weeks, then we finished the robot by week 4 to get extra driver practice.

tl;dr: Prototypes done this year by the start of week 3, robot manufactured by the end of week 4