[ChrisH]

Most of our team gets together to watch the Kickoff via the NASA channel or the webcast. A few memebers will go to the local remote Kickoff to pick up the Kit.

After Kickoff we sit down and read the rules. Then we simulate the game in a variety of ways. Some simulations are tabletop versions of the game. Other times we use people to simulate robots. The purpose of thses simulations is to determine one thing. "How do we guarantee we will win the match?" We want to know what the field needs to look like at the end of the mach to ensure victory. This process can take up to several days.

Then we figure out how to make the field look the way we want it to at the end. We probably have several ideas on how to do this up front but we work to find the best one. We will also prioritize game tasks and figure out which ones are more important. For example, last year we decided that hanging tubes was more important to us than lifting robots, so we worked the arm and gripper first. We didn't perfect our ramps until our second regional. This strategizing process can again take up to several days.

It can take 10-14 days for us to finalize a concept. On the other hand once we have a concept, design and fab go full bore and we get a prototype running within days if not hours. The prototype also gives the software guys something to play with. In addition, if we should get bogged down in fabrication for our real robot, we could ship the prototype and compete with that if we had to. It wouldn't have our traditional blue and yellow, but it would be well tested.