With Prototype Inspection Day now in the rear view mirror, the team is working hard at taking the feedback into consideration and making adjustments to our overall design. There were three major takeaways that we gathered from Prototype Inspection Day: 

1. When designing an autonomous system, it is good to have a manual override in case the systems go haywire. This is both for safety reasons as well as for performance/reliability. The team is currently assessing how to incorporate this feedback in the major autonomous components of the design.  
2. There was some concern whether our plywood structure would be stable enough unless we built a reinforcing wood frame. After some discussion, the team decided that it made sense to build a wooden frame for the structure. 
3. Several judges commented that when you have a complex project, the best approach is to start testing as early as possible with multiple iterations. This was a great reminder to the team that we don’t have to get everything right the first go-around! 

This goes to show you that no matter how much time or effort you put into a project, the team is always prone to miss something! The more fresh eyes or outside opinions that one can get, the better! It’s a crucial part to ultimately ending up with the best final product.