[M217]

We do our best to have a rough idea of the design by day 3 or 4 (for example, by day 4 of this year's build season, we'd agreed on a low bar robot with a pneumatic swerve drive, active intake, and high goal shooter). For the next week or so, we have half the team prototyping and half building a preliminary chassis. After that, the prototyping dies down a little; we reduce that group to about a few students and a single mentor (but they continue prototyping up through week 4).

This system has given us a lot more confidence in our designs, since we have the opportunity to try out a number of different iterations and make objective statements about each, while still leaving us with enough time to finish the bot/ drive practice/ program autonomous.