Documentation

Documenting your work throughout the process of building your VEX robot is crucial to your success. First, you will be able to look back on your previous work, find places to improve, record your ideas so you don’t forget, and write down important information for your team to know. Secondly, engineering notebooks are required for a few judged awards at VEX competitions.

Here, we list some basic steps to getting started on your engineering notebook. We hope this helps you with your documentation!

Title Page

The title page is the first thing that people will see when they look at your notebook, so make sure they can get all the information they need. You may want to include information like, team number, team name, your school, and the season you use the notebook for.

Image of title page example.

Table of Contents

The table of contents lists all the entries in your notebook. Make sure to give each one an accurate name, date, and page number. This will help you find things in your notebook easier.

Image of example table of contents.

Pre-Brainstorming

Before thinking about your ideas for your robot, take a critical look at the game and the rules. Write down any rules that stand out to you, and your initial strategic ideas about how you think the game is best played. 

Image of example pre-brainstorming.

Brainstorming

This is where you start thinking about what your robot will look like. Think about how you can accomplish the strategic goals you identified in the previous step. Make sure to sketch out your ideas for various mechanisms and assess their pros and cons.

Image of example brainstorming.

Making Your Decision

Here, this is where you will decide on a design to go with for your robot. List out some qualities that you feel are important for this system. Examples may be speed, cube capacity, maneuverability, and so on. Arrange them in a matrix and rate each trait from 1-10 for each different idea you had for a mechanism. The one with the highest score should theoretically be the optimal design.

Image of example decision matrix.

Planning Ahead

Make sure to set goals for your team. Set deadlines for when you want to have things done so you can move on to important next steps. 

Image of example goals page.

Documenting Your Work

This will make up the bulk of your notebook. Each day when you work on your robot and make some changes to it, remember to take some pictures and describe what you have done in your notebook. You may also want to discuss what you plan on doing the next day you work on the robot.

Image of documentation example.