If you haven’t already, I highly recommend having your team watch the “Effective FIRST Strategies” video by Karthik Kanagasabapathy on YouTube. He’s a brilliant strategist in the FRC world, and his approach shows what matters when designing to compete effectively. It’s one of those resources that’s packed with insights about how top-tier teams approach the season, how they prioritize, and how they evaluate what will actually make a difference on the field. It’s super helpful for both rookies and veterans alike because it reinforces how to make smart, focused choices rather than just designing the most elaborate robot possible.
The design process for successful teams tends to start with clear goals that shape every decision. You might start by asking, “What do we need to be able to do to achieve our goals this season?” That means prioritizing reliability and consistency. One of the most effective design philosophies is to start by maximizing the median score of your robot in a typical match. In other words, aim to make sure your robot performs decently every single time. This is actually harder than it sounds because it forces you to focus on simplicity and robustness. Think of every mechanism and ask, “Will this hold up in match after match?” Reliability should be your first priority because a robot that can score a consistent number of points every time will almost always do better than one that’s amazing on a good day but can’t function half the time.
Once you’re confident in your median score, then you can start focusing on pushing the frontier score—the highest score your robot can achieve in optimal conditions. This is where you add in more ambitious features, but only if they don’t interfere with that base reliability. If you build a mechanism that could boost your score potential but makes your robot more prone to failure, it’s probably not worth it. This balance between median and frontier scores is a strategic way to make sure your robot is both competitive and resilient. A practical way to think about this is by creating a probability distribution of your robot’s scores based on different scenarios. For example, if you’re in Excel, you can simulate match rounds and see where your robot’s scores tend to fall. Aim for a decent 10th percentile score, a strong median, and then push that 90th percentile up as high as possible, knowing it’s something you’ll reach in a perfect match.
A big part of the design process involves prototyping, but you want to prototype efficiently. Instead of spending weeks making endless wooden mockups, try to limit prototypes to only the most essential features. A lot of top teams prototype quickly, test the critical aspects, and move on. The idea is to confirm whether your concepts are viable without getting bogged down. And when you prototype, build field components and run mock rounds. This will give you an idea of how well the design works in a real match setting. Having field elements is crucial because it lets you simulate game play and measure how effectively your robot can score and perform certain tasks.
To help with making design decisions, use a Pugh matrix. This is a simple yet powerful tool where you list your design options, assign criteria (like reliability, cost, ease of implementation), and rate each option against those criteria. A Pugh matrix helps you make objective comparisons between designs rather than relying solely on gut feeling. It’s especially helpful for newer members because it breaks down the decision-making process and teaches them how to evaluate options critically. Encourage them to weigh trade-offs carefully. For instance, maybe a more complex mechanism can score faster but has a higher chance of breaking. The matrix makes these trade-offs more tangible, helping your team prioritize what’s actually valuable for your goals.
For teaching design, nothing beats hands-on experience. Encouraging new members to CAD and even build robots for past challenges is a great way to build their skills (I believe frcdesign.org encourages you to do this, I also recommend you to join Davids Design Server who actually made the website). They get to work through the entire design process, see how real mechanisms come together, and learn from their mistakes without the stress of a tight competition deadline. Design is something that improves with practice—learning from failed mechanisms, understanding what works under pressure, and iterating based on feedback are all crucial skills. The more they get to practice in a safe environment, the more confident they’ll be during the actual season.
It’s also important to keep in mind that efficient work isn’t about clocking in as many hours as possible. Efficient work means that every hour spent is purposeful. This is especially critical in those first days after kickoff when the design decisions you make will set the course for the entire season. The best teams work long hours, but they’re also making those hours count by having a clear plan and sticking to it. Wasting time in the early days on overly complex designs or unnecessary features will just lead to burnout and disappointment later on. Try to keep your design goals focused, your prototyping quick, and your decisions deliberate.
And also, I can’t stress data-driven design enough. Once you have a prototype, try running it through mock rounds and track its performance. Plotting scores on a histogram, seeing how often the robot hits certain benchmarks, and identifying weak points are all part of understanding where your robot sits in terms of performance. You can start to see patterns—where your robot excels, where it struggles—and use that data to refine your design further. It’s a continuous loop: build, test, analyze, and improve. The more structured you make this process, the more likely your team will end up with a competitive, consistent robot by the time competition rolls around.
tl;dr: focus on reliability first, push for higher performance once you have that stability, teach design through hands-on experience, use tools like the Pugh matrix for making smart decisions, and prioritize efficient work. And seriously, take the time to watch Karthik’s “Effective FIRST Strategies” video (I bet you already have). It is the one video related to robotics that completely changed the way I look at things for the better,
