[sanddrag]

This is how our team does it.

On Saturday, we watch the kickoff, learn the game, and then open the kit of parts. The last thing we do on Saturday (about 5-6 PM) is split the whole team (11 of us this year) up into 3 groups of students. On Sunday, we come in at about 12:30 PM and stay till about 5 or 6. Each of the three groups starts working on what we call a "well developed conceptual design". By well developed, we mean they should know what motor they are using for what mechanism and how it will "attatch" to accomplish the actuation. They should also be able to describe how each subsystem will fit in relation to all the others and plan for how much each subsytem will weigh. These three groups work independently with little or no comunication. Our teacher is always available and our engineer is sometimes available to help any of the groups.

The three design groups continue work on Monday and Tuesday afterschool from 2:30 until about 6. They make drawings, simple CAD models, and cardboard and wood mockups.

On Wednesday, the veteran members in each group make sure that the rookie members have a really good understanding of the design. This is because at about 6 PM on Wednesday, the rookie members from each of the three groups must present their design to the rest of the team. This is done so so that the people presenting are not so persuasive - rookie members generally aren't since they don't know that much about it yet. The presentations usually take about 45 minutes for all three.

Then, with our teacher and engineer(s), everyone talks about what is good and bad about each of the three designs. We talk about weight, space, cost, implementation, scoring, and performance. It usually takes a couple hours but then we pick from #s 1, 2, or 3, or make a #4 that implements subsystems from two or all three of the conceptual designs. By Wednesday at 9:30 PM, we have a FINALIZED conceptual design and have split the members into subsystem groups.

On Thursday, we begin detailed plans, models, and all that stuff. We are usually beginning calculations and exact measurements on Saturday (1 week from kickoff).

What I have just described above has been the best thing our team has ever done during the build. Week one was like easy as cake for us.

And then the next week it is rush to the catalogs to buy some parts. In week two, we usually spend at least two full days hashing out which wheels to use. The design of everything else usually depends on the wheels; at least on our team it does. By the end of week two, everything that will be making it on the robot is mocked up, calculated, measured, and integrated with the rest of the systems. Also, the basic structure of the chassis gets built in week 2.

Week three is machining/fabrication and some other stuff (I can't remember what else since I do machining)

Week 4 is same as week three

Week 5 is assembly and temporary electrical. By End of week 5 the robot can drive around well enough and do something else too.

Week 6 is testing, programming, breaking, and fixing.

And that is our six week build! After like the first week and a half, it all becomes a blur to me and that's why I couldn't describe the rest better.

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention is that somewhere along the way we do built field parts. But what else I really wanted to mention is that we draw a big chart of TO DO's on the white board. It has the things to do, who will do it, and what time it will be done by. We also do a chart of subsytems that shows the cost, weight, space, time, people, and all that stuff.