[Alex Dinsmoor]

Here is our (FEDS 201) design/building process:

1. Immediate Planning: After we attend kickoff, we go to an off site facility to go over all of the rules with the team. After there is a good understanding of the rules, we begin to toss around how we want to accomplish the goal at hand.
2. Robot Decisions: On the Monday after kickoff we get our whiteboard out and start drawing and listing. We finalize what we will do this year, and begin to draw out the design of the bot.
3. Physical Testing: When we have the design all made out, we begin to test the best ways to do things. For example, last year we used a plank of wood to symbolize our arm (you do remember that, don't you?), and used tables to hold the ball, and determined the best way to take the ball off of the rack.
4. CAD Team Unite!: Once we have a design down, the CAD team goes to work. They model the robot so we can build.
5. Designing the Code: The programming team creates a large flow chart to decide what they want to do and how to do it. They also create to-do cards. These help tremendously during the season.
6. Preparing the Code: At the same time the programmers are programming last years robot. This gives them a base code to modify for the new robot, so they don't have to scramble to make some code up, with a few weeks left.

Sure, this isn't everything; but it is all that goes into designing the robot.