FIRST FRC Team 3637
2019 Season - FIRST Destination: Deep Space
My senior year on Team 3637 was quite a journey. The game was space themed with game pieces that looked like 1.5 foot wide CDs and large orange kickballs. The robot had a large mechanical arm mounted to a rotating base that made it extremely versatile in its range of motion. It was able to quickly and easily pick up and place game pieces at all levels available in competition and proved to be quite robust requiring very low maintenance. I was elected as the president of the team, overseeing all team operations on the technical and business teams. Overall, we had a great season and it was a great way to end my senior year of high school.
2018 Season - FIRST Power Up
The third season with Team 3637 was a blast! The PowerUp game had a retro arcade theme and required robots to manipulate "power cubes" which were milk crates with bright yellow covers. Our robot was able to place milk crates about 8 feet in the air on top of the large middle game element - the scale which was basically the largest pan balance you have ever seen. We went to the world championships and I was an operator of the robot. I was also the technical vice president, so I put a ton of work into the physical aspects of making sure that the robot was completed on time and met all of the design goals.
2017 Season - FIRST Steamworks
My second season on Team 3637 has been my favorite so far. The game FIRST Steamworks was a very well thought out one that required alliances to cooperate to achieve a common goal. Robots have to collect large plastic yellow gears from the human player station and deliver them to their alliances airship, where the pilots can then raise the lift, retrieve the gear and place it on the next available peg. Robots could also score green large wiffle balls otherwise knows as "fuel" into the "boilers" for additional points for their alliances. The boiler has a top loading funnel that robots can shoot fuel into, or a low slot which is easier to score fuel into, but rewards fewer points than the high funnel. During this season, I was the functions operator of the robot, otherwise knows on our team as the co-driver or co-pilot. I operated the robots front claw to pick up gears from the human player station, or off of the floor. This gave us a large advantage over other teams that could not pick up off of the ground. At the end of the match, it was also my job to engage the robots climber and climb the rope attached to our airship, and fully depress the touchpad at the top.
2016 Season - FIRST Stronghold
My first year on the Hunterdon Central Robotics Team was a great one. The team competed well and made it to the world championship. During this season, I became a leading member of the electrical team and focused primarily on wiring the robot. I made may friends and after review, set a personal goal to become the Technical Vice President of the team, and possibly the president after that. I knew that I would have to prove myself as a hardworking team member and a trustworthy person to be granted the position of Technical VP. The 2016 FIRST Stronghold game required a robot that could cross the "defenses" on the playing field. These were obstacles that robots would have to get over or go through. Some of these can be completed solo, but others require another alliance member to hold open a gate or door to allow both robots through to score mote points. Robots also had to score grey dodge balls otherwise known as boulders into either a high or low goal. The high goal requires much more accuracy, but wins the alliance more points, while the low goal is much easier to score in but wins the alliance fewer points.