When and how do you create a whole-robot design?

[Chris is me]

Our design concept was picked on Day 3, Monday after Kickoff. We then worked for three weeks on prototypes, the chassis build, and CAD design only to throw everything out on the Friday of Week 3 and try again.

At around Monday of Week 4, we all "knew" what the robot would look like. We prototyped a wooden shooter + hopper frame to ensure everything would work okay, then mounted it on the robot using the same shoulder joint that our climber would have used. The rest just happened.

Our head mentor is currently (and probably will be for some time) our lead CAD coordinator, making sure all of the subsystems work well together before manufacturing... or after, if we have to. I think teams need one or two people to integrate everything successfully in CAD, with good communication skills so they can talk about the design with prototypers and subsystem CADers. We then got everything cut and painted and had about 5 days to test it all before ship. Even so, we weren't "done" with the robot until the beginning of our second regional.