When does your team start actually designing a robot?

[Joseph1825]

I know this is something that is wildly different between teams. I was wondering if you could post and say when your team has finished with reading the rules, points evaluation, strategy discussions, ect. and when you have started brainstorming ideas for your robot.
I know that my team didn't get to brainstorming on Saturday and we might not get to it on Monday. (I don't think this is bad, I really like the strategy sessions.)

From my experience, the best time to start figuring out design is after you know your strategy and game plan(s).

You have to know WHAT you want to do before you decide HOW you want to do it.

For the typical team that can be between 2 and 3 days. Any longer is really pushing it on time.

[wilderbuchanan]

We will have a design review on wednesday where member of the team can present their ideas for designs. We will then on that day decide on around 6 prototypes we want to build in the following week or two. We will also decide on drive train as well.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Joseph1825

I know this is something that is wildly different between teams. I was wondering if you could post and say when your team has finished with reading the rules, points evaluation, strategy discussions, ect. and when you have started brainstorming ideas for your robot.
I know that my team didn't get to brainstorming on Saturday and we might not get to it on Monday. (I don't think this is bad, I really like the strategy sessions.)

Scoring breakdown and game evaluation -- Yesterday.
Strategy and game play discussion/evaluation/decision -- Today.
Robot design starts on Monday, concentrating on drive base first, then payload.
Field Mockups done by this coming Saturday.
Initial drive base ready by this Saturday.

[Awesomegamer235]

Our strategie squadron has to make their final desion so Design squadron can start designing and then the build squadron can start building

[MikLast]

we seem to be drastically different, along with figuring out strategies, we started designing a robot all through Saturday, and are going to keep refining ideas/ strategies at least through tuesday, and have both a robot and strategy down.

[Bryce2471]

Originally Posted by MikLast

we seem to be drastically different, along with figuring out strategies, we started designing a robot all through Saturday, and are going to keep refining ideas/ strategies at least through tuesday, and have both a robot and strategy down.

We are somewhere in between. We did strategy and goals for about half of yesterday. We started to talk about robot implementations on paper and white boards. Today we're having a CAD meeting.

We want to know what we want to do first, but we want to know if it's feasible as soon as possible.

[tindleroot]

Our team's layout is fairly similar to Daniel's. We decided our strategy yesterday along with "must-have" robot constraints. All team members are brainstorming robot drives and manipulators on our own, then deciding on the best designs tomorrow and begin 3-ish prototypes. We want to be building our proto/practice bot before the end of week 2.

[who716]

my team doesn't start designing the robot till the end of week two to the start of week three, its better to understand the rules and no exactly how you want to play the game

[MrForbes]

We'll have our first meeting tomorrow around 4, then by Wednesday we might start thinking about robot designs. I hope we can come up with something simple that works

[Chris is me]

The weekend is usually all high level stuff. Depending on the game, we can sometimes make / design our drive base before we figure out how we will manipulate game pieces, so we can do that as early as the Monday after the game comes out. We prototype extensively and usually start cutting the manipulator parts Week 3.

[asid61]

We usually start high level, and are currently thinking about what we want the robot to do, strategy, etc. However, I'm currently working on our drivebase and some simple mechanisms for playing the game in CAD to lessen the workload later.

[Jeffy]

Every team has a slightly different timeline. Here is the one I like best:

Sat- Read rules, discuss the game, start strategy talk
Sun- Day off
Mon- Continue strategy discussion, end with a plan if it seems possible (ie. everyone can get onboard)
Tue- absolute last day to pick a strategy, start brainstorming ideas for robot components
Wed- build protos, CAD models, drawings, of as many of the prototypes as you can

Thur- Sat: finish the prototypes/proof of concepts your team has decided to make. Start final robot design process. Pick drivetrain, manipulator type, ect.

Week 2- Start iteration 2 of prototypes where applicable, start drivet rain construction, continue CAD and design work

[JesseK]

We knew right away what we'd do, and how many cycles we'd aim for based upon some math and rules reading. We then used our offseason prototype drive train to test out different wheel configurations over the pool noodle and a representative bump. Brainstormed, got a working proof of concept for the totes. Had a realization about the recycling container today. Luckily the tote proof doesn't weigh much.

At this point it's CAD CAD CAD CAD CAD OMG CAD CAD CAD. Yet it's more analysis than detailed design, until the proof is a prototype with all of its individual parts. Yesterday we're pretty sure we figured out the base of the drive train, so we have to detail that far enough so we can order parts asap.

[Grey Mann]

Right after kickoff yesterday: Get back to our home base, break into teams, assign each team a section of the rule books, have them break down their section and report back to the team as a whole, begin discussing basic stratagies in small groups and in the whole team, assign each small team a specific function (i.e. manipulating the totes/containers, drive train, etc. etc.) and have then begin prototyping ideas for their function.
Today: Continue prototyping, send teams to the T-building to start making scale models.
Tomorrow: Sharing prototypes, deciding on the best prototype for each for each function, begin sketching/CADding the robot.