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FRC 840 Orange County Regional- February 26 - March 2

FTC 4345 Regional - February 22-23 

The objective consisted of putting PVC pipes called “coral” into “coral reefs,” as well as launching playground balls, or “algae,” into elevated nets and holes on the ground. There is also a portion that requires a difficult climb, where the bot needs to grab onto swinging cages to proceed. Unlike last year, the challenge is more independent, with less interaction with opposing robots on the field.

The kickoff itself allocated time for FRC to strategize, an essential part of the event that included brainstorming and figuring out the most important aspects of the game to focus on.

“In this game, the most important aspect … was the coral,” said Rui Liu (9) from fabrication. “We had to find a way for the robot to intake and outtake the coral.”

FRC also had to look beyond the objectives to the bigger adjustments the team had to make in order to ensure a smoother season. Since the build season is cut shorter this year, the prioritization of time and efficiency is essential.

“We are streamlining the process by doing everything … by subsystem,” said FRC Captain Adam Richter. “It’s very important to get the physical robot done as soon as possible, so there's time to test and detect issues and ultimately refine the robot.”

Qualifying for Worlds by winning a regional as either Alliance captain or first pick for an alliance is FRC’s main goal this season. However, other improvements and developments, like better organization, are also key priorities to ensure the team’s success.

“I think one of our biggest goals is to improve our organization, which we've been working on,” Richter said. “[This includes] both physical organization like the shop, but also task organization and project management.”

Their lengthy game manual was released in November and finalized in early January, so the build season is underway.

The MATE Competition assigns a variety of tasks that reflect real-world scenarios. For example, one task requires them to observe a shipwreck, which is similar to those at Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Megalodon ROV will participate in the Ranger Class in hopes of qualifying for Worlds by placing top two in their regional competition.

During the off-season, the mechanical team was busy with Co-Mechanical Lead Emily Ma focusing on training the new members and Co-Mechanical Lead Emily Jane Vincent working to perfect their float and ensure the water resistance of their robot. Ma introduced the fundamentals of CAD and shop procedures.

“I’m really proud of them, and I think that they grew a lot,” said Ma. “They’ve always been very eager to learn … and right now they’re helping us with fabricating our ROV.”

At the same time, Vincent along with the rest of the mechanical team focused on testing the waterproof housing, as that is their main component that must be perfected in time for competition.

Though the ROV’s performance contributes to a large portion of their qualifying score, their presentation is also a big factor in their results. The MATE ROV competition follows the structure of Shark Tank with teams presenting the details of their ROV and answering technical questions from the judges.

“Last year, we had judges from MBARI Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and it's really great because they're professionals,” said Ma. “They give lots of helpful feedback, and they can ask really technical questions.”

The team is also working on combating last year’s obstacles by building better habits.

“One of our new mentors, Mr. Albertson, is very particular with us being on time about stuff,” said Vincent. “It was a big problem for us last year.”

Megalodon ROV is off to a great start with the Mechanical team hoping to finalize their frame and allow the Electrical team to add in their components. The team chemistry also allows for a fluid build season.

In the third competition, it was important for the team to do well and pull up their overall scores. FTC placed second in the competition, pushing them to third in the league. The team’s performance in the tasks exceeded expectations, and every aspect but autonomous ran smoothly. During autonomous, FTC had some issues with the robot tilting up and the springs tensioning for the odometry pods not being tight enough, which led them to have inaccurate tracking and lose their position easily.  The team also had to make adjustments to the unfamiliar competition field, which differed slightly from the one that FTC had been preparing with. Despite these challenges, however, the team’s overall results were extraordinary.

“We had the fastest cycles and the best intake,” said mechanical lead Sam Gulchin (12). “We can pick up from the submersible the fastest, and we transfer very quickly. Everything was going very well.”

The new members were also able to contribute to the recent competitions more, after mainly being observers in the past.

“I helped make new parts,” said mechanical member Rebecca Chen (9).“The newbies mostly continued training or helped CAD, [Computer Aided Designing], parts of the robot.”

Just this past weekend, FTC had their fourth and final league competition, where they won Engineer Inspire and  Finalist Alliance Captain. The team did exceptionally well, earning a league high score of 241 in one match, and averaging 165 points per round.

The team chose Onward as their alliance partner because of their bot’s strong clipping function, which paired well with our focus on the bucket portion. Together, the teams faced challenges and obstacles and optimized the point-scoring to win finalist Alliance Captain, which, despite not guaranteeing qualification for regionals, was a great honor and a result of excellent adaptation.

“During our match with Onward against Artemis and Bearded Dragons, [our strongest opponents], …we won with the league high score,” said Ellen Li, FTC Captain. “The energy while we were going against them was insane. I’ve never heard louder cheering, and everyone was chanting our name.”

Senior Anish Dara, who was present as a finance representative for FTC, had his first experience emceeing at the competition.

“I've seen play-by-play announcers and how they're able to hype the crowd,” Dara said. “So I tried to mimic that energy.”

The beta bot stood out among many formidable competitors, with customized parts and different variations that not a lot of teams used.

“We have an LED light that would tell the drivers what color of the sample they were picking up,” Li said. “We really tried to emphasize during our judging time … that we were building two bots.”

Additionally, the judges were extremely impressed with the motto of being student-led, student-built and student-run, as well as the many inspiring outreach initiatives at Aragon. All of these components propelled 4345 to be the chosen candidate for Engineer Inspire.  

“I’m incredibly proud of them,” said Dara. “I've seen some really emotional, tense moments, and I've also seen some amazing effort being put in. To see all of that be validated by winning the Inspire award and making it to regionals was incredible.”

The team is already looking ahead to prepare for regionals by replacing the inside of the robot with a more coherent, solid design.

“Until [regionals], we also have to focus on rebranding ourselves,” Li said. “Being student-led and student-built is no longer as unique within the regional space, so we're probably going to change our motto.”

The Northern California Regional competition will be held from Feb. 22 to 23.

Because all technical teams are in season, any amount is appreciated more than ever!

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Newsletter Writers: Sophia Cheng, Julia Chang
Newsletter Editors: Ethan Tawn, Ellen Li