[qscgy]

Generally, we build prototypes out of 80/20 for optimizing geometry and proof of concept, usually finishing by the middle of week 3. Once that's done, we may build a Gen. II prototype for more refinement before building the final, usually finishing that by the end of week 4 or middle of week 5, at which point we take a few (5-7) days to mount everything to the robot frame. I know that in 2014, we mounted our prototypes to a preseason drive frame and used that to test our robot design.

Elaborating on prototypes, we generally have at least 2 different groups working on different designs for the same element (e.g. defense manipulator). Each group does their own proof of concept, and then we decide which design to use by the end of week 2 or so. Since the proof of concept is generally a mostly functional prototype, we can start working on the next iteration of the mechanism pretty quickly.