For future ME218ers
Team Structure:
Do not divide the work by Electrical, Mechanical and Code; Code becomes a time sink much later than the electrical and mechanical. Making only a single person in charge of each creates an asymmetrical workload within the team.
Don't plan weekend trips during the term project, especially if you are a team of 3. Better yet, aim for a team of 4.
Strategy:
Try to come up with a full game plan in the first meeting, and work backwards to figure out the sensors and design features you need from there.
Clearly define what your minimum viable product is, and what is a "nice to have" but not necessary.
Electrical:
Take the time to do things right, whether that is setting up voltage regulators for your high voltage line or carefully measuring the gain for your universal signal conditioning board. The last thing you want to be dealing with as the project matures is faulty wiring, blown fuses, or dubious beacon sensing.
Hardware:
Make sure to find a way to support the radial load being applied on the motors, this is key.
Modeling the wiring can be tough to model in CAD, but make sure to account for the space required for wires to travel to and from components. You can either design with the wiring in mind once you have a fully thought out plan for your hardware or have a design with lots of space for wiring (we did the second).
Don't CAD your design to be so close to the max dimensions
Have plenty of holes in the laser cut parts/3D prints for cable management
Have the switch and game start button in a highly accessible area
Build in a way to grab bot easily
If you are building the chassis out of acrylic, use 1/4" acrylic to strengthen the bot
Code:
Automatic sensor calibration will save you lots of time debugging and recalibrating values, especially as light conditions and playing field conditions change.
Modularity saves time in the long run and decreases debugging time.
Try to have more than 1 person who understands the code— that way, debugging is easier and people can help more during the later stages of the project.