Take the time to study a number of different situations and once you have decided what the situation is and you understand exactly what the problem is then write a design brief in a log book (this will be your working document as you work on your robot.
This log book can be a paper notebook or an electronic document.) This is a short statement which explains the problem that is to be solved.
preview:
http://www.galileo.org/robotics/design.html
11/3/2003
