Watch this video by Grant Imahara on the importance of designing in the FIRST Robotics Competition. He effectively summarizes the entire process and gives effective tips for your team to follow.

Two important activities for your team this to utilize week:

  • Prototyping. Get various sizes of stock wood, duct tape, cardboard, and scrap metal — you can ask your local scrap company for donations of metal. These materials will allow you to quickly test any design ideas you have without needing to CAD or build official parts.
     
  • CAD Modeling. The most popular CAD softwares in FIRST competition are AutoCAD Inventor and SolidWorks. FIRST has resources to get both for free (click on the respective links for downloads/order forms). Use modeling software to manipulate and revise your arm before building a single part!

~ Girls of Steel, FIRST Team #3504