The FRC Robot Design Process, Step by Step

Every January, thousands of FIRST Robotics Competition teams watch the same game reveal and then face the same question: what robot should we actually build? The teams that win consistently are rarely the ones with the flashiest mechanisms. They are the ones who follow a disciplined design process that starts with strategy, not with a CAD model.

Here is how that process works, step by step.

Start with the game manual, not with ideas

When Kickoff drops in early January, you get the season's game video and a 100-plus-page game manual. The single most important thing you can do in week one is read it carefully, then read it again. Everything downstream, from your robot's drivetrain to its smallest bracket, follows from how points are scored.

As you read, write down every way to earn points and roughly how many points each is worth. This raw list of scoring opportunities is the foundation of what FRC mentors call strategic design, an approach popularized by people like Karthik Kanagasabapathy of Simbotics (Team 1114) in his widely shared "Effective FIRST Strategies" presentation.

Rank the scoring opportunities

Now turn that list into priorities. For each scoring action, weigh two things: how many points it returns, and how hard it is for your team to do reliably given your budget, tools, and experience. This is a cost-benefit analysis.

A common method is to lay the scoring tasks out and sort them, putting the non-negotiables on one end:

• Driving and maneuvering well (every competitive robot needs this)
• The highest-value, most-achievable scoring tasks next
• "Nice to have" actions that you only attempt if time and resources allow

The goal is a ranked priority list, not a wish list. You almost never have time to build a robot that does everything.

Choose consistency over capability

This is the principle experienced teams repeat the most: a robot that does one thing consistently beats a robot that does everything unreliably. Resources like FRCDesign.org and Game Manual 0 both stress that scoring reliably at a low or medium level usually earns more, and makes you a more attractive alliance pick, than scoring high but rarely.

So pick a focused set of capabilities you can actually nail, and resist the urge to bolt on a mechanism for every game element.

It is also worth knowing that FIRST provides an official KitBot each season, a baseline robot designed to play some part of the year's game. For newer teams, building and lightly iterating on the KitBot is a legitimate, competitive strategy rather than a fallback. You can learn more about turning priorities into mechanisms in the LearnFRC CAD and Design guide at https://learnfrc.systemerr.com/guides/cad-design.

Settle the drivetrain early

Your drivetrain is the one subsystem every other part bolts onto, so decide it fast. The classic tradeoff is tank drive (simpler mechanically, electrically, and in code) versus swerve (far more maneuverable, but harder on all three fronts). Swerve has become much more accessible in recent years, but most teams who run it well practiced in the off-season first. Getting a solid drivebase locked in early frees the rest of the season for your scoring mechanisms.

Prototype before you commit to CAD

Before you model a final mechanism, build rough, fast prototypes out of cheap materials like plywood, scrap aluminum, polycarbonate, and 3D-printed parts. The point is to answer questions quickly: does this intake grab the game piece? Does this arm reach high enough? Prototyping turns guesses into evidence, and it is far cheaper to fail with plywood than with machined aluminum.

Move into CAD and refine

Once a prototype proves a concept, formalize it in CAD. A full robot model lets you check for collisions, confirm the design fits within the season's frame perimeter and height rules, plan wiring and packaging, and hand clean drawings to whoever is fabricating parts. Treat CAD as iteration, not decoration: expect to revise the model as you test. The LearnFRC CAD and Design department at https://learnfrc.systemerr.com/guides walks through the tools and conventions for this stage.

Build, test, and iterate continuously

The build period runs roughly six weeks from Kickoff to your first competition. Importantly, the old "bag and tag" and Stop Build Day rules ended after the 2019-20 season, so you can keep working on and improving your robot throughout the season. Use that freedom: build, test against real game tasks, find what breaks, and refine. A driver who has practiced for weeks on a finished robot is worth more than one extra mechanism added the night before bag-up used to happen.

The short version

Read the manual, list and rank scoring opportunities, pick a focused and consistent strategy, lock the drivetrain, prototype cheaply, refine in CAD, then test and iterate. Strategy first, hardware second, every time.

Ready to turn your priority list into a real design? Start with the LearnFRC CAD and Design guide at https://learnfrc.systemerr.com/guides/cad-design.