What is FRC?

FIRST Robotics Competition is an annual high school competition where students are given 6 weeks to research, design and build a competitive robot from start to finish. What makes this challenging is that the event type and rule set completely change annually, automatically making previous built robots obsolete. In addition to the main competition, points are awarded for other aspects including the business plan and a report given by the team with all necessary documentation.

My FRC Experience

Being a part of my high school’s FRC team is what really opened my eyes to how real engineers work on projects in order to meet goals. Initially taking to the physical fabrication aspect, I later gravitated towards design work via CAD and other practical methods. While specializing mostly in drivetrain and intake systems, I had a level of involvement in almost everything ranging from electronic systems to mechanical lifts. It is here that I learned how to function and communicate while on a team (15+ people). I gained a vast majority of what I now know about how things are engineered from my three years building robots. While not as well defined as some of my current projects, we still had development cycles and individual subsystems that needed completion in a timely manner. I would not trade anything for the late nights spent with my teammates in which we learned from one another and all grew as a family of engineers.

One of the more notable subsystems I worked on was the claw mechanism for our ‘22 robot intake. Due to regulations restricting our motor selections and outputs, we were forced to redesign our original concept several times in a bid to reduce weight (as hinted by the photo below with all the individual component masses written on a whiteboard). Through the use of 6061 shafts, composite arms and a lightened gearset, we were able to reduce the weight of the assembly by roughly 25% while also simplifying it.