During the beginning, members on the WildStang team needed to understand the rules of the game and how it is played before we can start on the design process. So the members of the WildStang strategy and concept sub teams got together and did the 2003 game analysis. As a team, we figured out the strategy to maximize our chances of winning. This means that we did not yet figure out our final robot design. We figured out activities the robot and human player needed to accomplish during a match in order to score higher points and make the robot dominant on the field.

After the discussion about the rules of the game, we needed to learn the rules and limitations for the contruction of the robot. It was very important that we knew and completely understood:

For 2003, FIRST came up with a unique and challenging game involving many design challenges.
The robot built for this game had to be able to perform different tasks in order to be effective on
the playing field. The concept of our design is always derived from the following elements:

With respect to our game strategy, we came up with different tasks that our robot should perform.

•  To be the king of the hill and able to block opponents effectively
  • We want the robot to block and push in both directions because opponents can come from either side of the ramp (red and blue areas). So we chose the idea of having deflectors on both side of the robot. This later turned into what we now call: "wings" (interchangeably).
•  To be a robot that stacks the bins
  • We want to construct an arm to pick up at least one bin at a time to transport or create a stack of bins on our side. In order to do so, our arm will be used as a “bottom stacker”, meaning that the robot will be able to stack bins from the bottom and consequently those on top. This also saves us more time and energy than having to go back for one bin at a time.
•  To be the king of bins (control and maneuver bins around the playing field)
  • We want to build a robot that is fast, strong and maneuverable during autonomous mode. This year's game requires more software enhancements to handle the robot in automonous mode. We want a robot that is capable of reaching the top of the ramp or knocking down stacks in the first 15 seconds without human control.
•  Additonal components
  • We want our robot to have low center of gravity and good drive train system to be able to maneuver around the playing field quickly from one side to another.
  • Since the top of the ramp is slippery, we want to have something to prevent the robot from skidding off the ramp uncontrollably.