Robolyst Robolyst
The whole toolkit Written as you build, not the week before judging

Documentation

Your documentation is the single highest-leverage record an FTC team produces. It is most of what the engineering portfolio and the Inspire Award are judged on, and it is almost always written in the last two weeks from memory. Documentation in Robolyst exists to make writing it during the season the path of least resistance.

Try it in the live demo

Free for every team · run by a 501(c)(3)

In use on Robolyst

all time

Docs written

1,224

+548 in the last 30 days

Teams documenting

46

30 active in the last 30 days

One subsystem, read as the chronology a judge asks you to walk them through.

Intake: design log sample
  1. Nov 12 Brainstorm
    Roller intake vs. claw: three sketches cycle-time estimates for each
  2. Nov 19 Design
    Compliant roller CAD, v1 4 CAD screenshots
  3. Nov 26 Build
    First assembly on the practice bot
  4. Dec 3 Test
    Two samples at once jams the throat video · linked to task
  5. Dec 10 Iterate
    Wheels at 45°, throat widened 6mm
Design process Identify ProblemBrainstormResearchDesignBuildProgramTestIterate

On screen

The page itself, captured out of the live demo, which anyone can open, without an account.

Open it yourself
Robolyst FTC engineering documentation: dated build-log entries tagged by subsystem and design stage, from autonomous path planning to intake testing.
The engineering notebook, written as the season happens.

What teams say

  • I love Robolyst. It helps make documentation and taking notes much easier. Since my team started using Robolyst meetings have also started to become much smoother.

    FTC #30334

    Blood, Sweat, and Gears

  • Robolyst is quickly becoming an all-in-one home for our team. It brings team management, documentation, and metrics together in one place, making it much easier to track what we accomplish, how engaged team members are, and the impact of our outreach. The mobile experience and Discord integration are especially valuable, allowing students to participate in whatever way works best for them, either in-app or right from the Discord server they're already using. Robolyst is incredibly easy to use and the development team is remarkably responsive to questions and suggestions. Highly Recommended

    FTC #24180

    Blue Bananas

  • Robolyst has made managing our robotics team so much easier. It gives us one place to handle everything from meeting notes and task assignments to 3D prints, parts orders, finances, and budgets. The platform is easy to use, and adding tasks or keeping track of what needs to get done is simple and straightforward. Instead of juggling multiple apps and spreadsheets, we can keep everything organized in one place. It’s a great tool for keeping our team on track and making sure nothing falls through the cracks! 10/10 would recomend!

    Tate, Captain, FTC #5026

    Tesla Coils

Every testimony

Log entries from a phone in the shop

Write an entry from a phone in the shop, tag it to a subsystem and a design stage, and it lands in your documentation in order. No separate document to remember to open.

Filed by subsystem and design stage, for judging

Entries carry subsystem, stage and date, so your documentation can be read as a chronology or as the story of one mechanism. Both are questions judges ask.

  • Subsystems you define: drivetrain, intake, outtake, autonomous, whatever the robot has
  • Design stages from concept through iteration to final
  • Photos, CAD screenshots and video embedded inline
  • Links between entries, tasks and the parts that were ordered for them

An editor that cites tasks, parts and awards

A real editor (headings, lists, tables, images, embeds) and a text box nowhere in sight. Type @ to pull in a task, a teammate, a part you ordered or an award, and it stays live: the entry updates when the thing it cites does.

  • Photos dropped straight into an entry, and every one of them filed in the team’s image library on the way past
  • Albums and subsystem filters, so “show me the intake, all season” is two clicks
  • The same library the public site pulls from, so a photo used for judging can be used on the sponsor page
  • Turn smart tagging on and the subsystem, stage and entry type are proposed from what you wrote. You click to accept

Last year’s documentation carries over

Last year’s documentation is still there next year, which is how a rookie learns why the drivetrain is the way it is.

Questions teams ask

Can we still print it for judging?
Yes. Export one entry, or everything in the current filter, as a PDF or Markdown. Entries keep their order and their dates.
Is this our engineering portfolio?
It is what the portfolio gets written from. The portfolio is short and page-limited; documentation is the full season, filed by subsystem, so every claim in the portfolio has a dated entry behind it when a judge asks.
Who can write entries?
Anyone on the team you give the permission to. Documentation access is a role permission like everything else in Team HQ.
Does it replace a paper log?
It replaces the scramble to assemble one. Plenty of teams still keep a paper log at the machine; this is where it gets turned into something judges can follow.
Where do the links we reference end up?
In Resources, the team’s shared link list. Anything you paste into an entry is added there automatically, and you can add links by hand (the manual, the CAD folder, a vendor) and pin the ones people need every week.

Read next

The rest of the toolkit

Documentation is one part of Team HQ.

The roster, the build schedule, your documentation, the money and your public site run on the same free account. Setting it up takes an afternoon.

Try it in the live demo