[Duke_of_Hazard]

well, our team at kickoff has our own meeting, that spans over 3 days, with each day doing something else:

Day One - students, and mentors, are dissuaded to think about robots, we think about what we want to do and what we want to accomplish, and what will win the game (this year we decided to not have ramps since we assumed that there would be ramps aplenty to choose from, and I think we werent far from the truth). One key thing that people tend to overlook is logistics (time spent moving across field, under defense, etc). Always try to factor that in.

Day Two - Rough design of what the robot can do to complete our objective, minor sketches. When dealing here, remember the wonderful acronym KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).

Day Three - Specific design features of what the robot can be built to do, detailed sketches (Dont get overzealous, there is a construction deadline...).

Then, for the remaining build season, we try to construct a complete replica of our robot on Pro-E CAD, which helps when making parts cause it gives you a sense of assembly. We waterjet and CNC most parts, with the talented machinists finishing off the work in their own way. This year, since our 2k5 and 2k4 robot had a similar design, we could use those robots as a real-life test to our design, since most of us know what looks great on paper is sometimes misleading.

hope that helps...