How do you make design decisions as a "team"?

[BJC]

I'll try to give what little knowledge I have regarding design..

1. Figure out what your design goals are before anyone comes up with any designs. It is natural to immidiatly begin to jump to the idea stage after being presented with a problem. Refrain from this, redefine and specify the problem.

2. Make a list of priorities based on your redefined problem. A list of priorities in 2011 for tube hanging would have been: -drive around -aquire tube -get tube into scoring position -release tube Notice how being able to release a tube is useless without being able to effectivly aquire one. Thus aquiring comes first. Many teams fall into the trap of mixing up their priorities and end up with a robot that can't effectively play the game as a result.

3. Refine your problem again. Ok done? Now do it again. This is the most important part of the process. Even the best designed robot performs poorly if its solving the wrong problem.

4. At this point it's time to break out the Weighted Objective Tables. Yaaay! But seriously, use them, they help prevent "my-own-design-is-the-best-osis" and often make seemingly close and difficult choices obvious. USE THEM!

5. At this point you hopefully have a design thought out. Now go and make sure that your still staying true to the origional problem you defined. It probably isn't; fix it so it is. The design will become simpler as a result--that's a good thing.

6. Alright, your done! You have a successful design. Just kidding! Now do this again three times.

Doing these things as a team makes for a very successful robot. Good Luck!