Some people think the secret to a great robot is a full team of engineers and a small mountain of corporate money, it isn't.
The secret is prototyping.
Whatever you're going to do, you need to play around with it, test it, tweak it, and learn if you're idea is a good one LONG before you try to execute it.
Follow a
design process, for success.
The most successful teams in FIRST all rock the prototypes...