How to Document Planning, Strategizing, and Early Stage of Robot Construction in the Engineering Notebook - Pattonville-Robotics/Library-of-Alexandria GitHub Wiki

The hardest thing to do with the engineering notebook is document strategy and show, adequately, how the the robot was planned. Our teams commonly make weighted objective tables to help with planning the robot, but many teams use a variety of other ways to strategize. The easiest way to document all of this planning is to take LOTS and LOTS of pictures. Take a picture of every table, every sketch, and every idea. Even if the idea is quickly shot down, make sure you document it. The notebook is about documenting your ideas, regardless of how they work.

When designing basic structures of the robot, the best thing to do is sketch out the idea. Once the idea is sketched, make sure to mark angles measures and sizing references to give a sense of scale to the drawing. Take of a picture of this drawing and make sure to include it somewhere in the notebook. If you have CAD available to you, and someone who knows how to use it, make sure to make a CAD model of your system, and your whole robot if time is available, as well. Add these models into your notebook as pictures. They not only show that you really planned out you system, but also allow you to visualize you system and make you a contender for a design or engineering award.

For programming, when planning out various autonomous strategies, make sure to actually draw out the path you want the robot to take on a map of the field. Download a picture of the field from the internet and print it out so you can draw all over it. Draw arrows showing where the robot is going to go. Make numbers where different action or steps are going to take place. If you have a full field available to you, take measurements and angle measures of all of the steps and paths you want to take in your various autonomous programs. Put ALL of these planning sheets in the notebook. Date and sign them, and if you follow through with one in particular, go back and make note of it on that page.