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An Overview of the Process
The engineering design cycle helps you build the best robot possible by following clear steps. It’s important because it helps you solve problems, test your ideas, and keep making your robot better.
We call it a cycle because it doesn’t just happen once--you go through the steps again and again.
If you’ve been following our guide, you’ve been trying to answer this question:
“What is the best way to make our robot move?”
Here’s what we’ve done so far:
Set our goals – We made a list of what our robot needs to do to move successfully.
Created ideas – We looked at examples, did research, and drew sketches of possible designs.
Built our robot – We chose a design and built it step by step, writing down how we did it.
Tested our robot – We ran tests to see what worked well and what didn’t.
Now it’s time to look at the test results and think about what we learned. What parts worked great? What needs to be fixed or improved?
Next, we go back to the drawing board and come up with new or better ideas based on what we learned.
And don’t forget--keep writing everything down in your notebook as you go through each step again! That’s how real engineers work and how your robot will get better and better.
Optimize - Repeat The Design Process Criteria:
Exceeds
Shows that the design process is repeated multiple times to improve performance on a design goal, or robot/game performance.
Meets
Design process is not often repeated for design goals or robot/game performance.
Below
Does not show that the design process is repeated.
Do I really have to do it all again? AND Write it down?
One question that new team members often ask is:
“Do I have to write this down again?”
This usually happens when the fix seems really small or simple—like tightening a screw or moving a piece just a little bit.
But the answer is yes—you should always write it down!
Think about it like this: Imagine someone is building a LEGO castle. They fix a part that keeps falling off, but they don’t remember how they fixed it. Later, they try to build it again—but that piece keeps falling off because they didn’t write down the solution.
Or imagine the people who make video game systems figured out how to stop the controller from disconnecting—but they didn’t take notes. Next time, they might forget what they did and make the same mistake again!
In robotics, we want to keep track of every change we make—even small ones. You don’t need to rewrite the robot’s goals every time (since that's not changing often), but you should write down:
New ideas you had to fix the problems you noticed in the current solution.
What you decided to do about it.
What happened after the change.
This helps your whole team understand what’s going on. And if something goes wrong—like the robot starts working worse instead of better—you’ll be able to look back in your notebook and undo the mistake quickly.
Good notes = smart teamwork!
"Never take something apart before... taking photos of the Before and After"
Including a before and after photo shows judges clearly that you are going through the design process multiple times.
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