Newsletter Pre-Week 2 2026

Written by: Manuel Romero Maspoli, Ellen Ingham

Chicken Bot Pie is making great progress towards our preseason tournament- MinneTrials! New members are learning essential skills for the real competition while working towards this awesome tournament!

---

Programming

The Programming sub-team is hard at work in both training new members and creating tools to help us once the build season starts! The new members are taking this preseason time to learn the electronics of the robot in an exciting, hands on approach. They are taking a close look at our drivetrain, working on being able to identify components and connections to identify possible problems in the future. Returning members are also super locked in! They are doing a lot of work with automated robot systems, including Feather Flow (shown on the left), our team’s auto path planning software. This image illustrates the pathing of the robot, with red sections meaning higher speeds and green sections meaning slower ones. They are also working on auto align systems so drivers have an easier time maneuvering the robot, making it easier and faster to score points in competition.

Build & Design

Build & Design has been making great progress towards a working robot for MinneTrials! They are done with their brainstorming process and have moved on to modeling their designs in

Onshape using simple geometry. After the basic designs are done, the more CAD focused new members will fully develop the prototypes so that they can start building them. This is important so the proportions on the parts are right, and so everything can be compatible and fit together once it’s on the robot.

Operations

This week, the Operations subteam is working on finalizing sponsorship messaging, and refining our team’s design guidelines in order to keep a cohesive look for the team.

Isaac Y, a senior on Operations, has been working hard leading the rewrite of our sponsorship request message, along with help from Manuel RM, Connor S, Jaisri V, and Sophia T. This letter, which is sent to companies when we ask to be sponsored by them, has been the same for multiple years. Having it fully revamped will be an asset to our success this year with our sponsorships. Connor S., a sophomore, says that “as a robotics team, it’s important that we make a strong first impression” to companies we request funding from. This revision will help us do just that— epitomizing the messaging companies receive about our team’s goals this year and in the future.

Operations’ other main goal this week is to refine the design guidelines for our team. The design guidelines are instructions for team members to create team materials in the style of the team. Similar to the sponsorship request letter, they haven’t been worked on in a few years. By revamping and expanding these guidelines, it will be easier for our team to create a cohesive image between all media, be it Instagram, YouTube, or our website. Jaisri V, the leader of this project, is also working on creating variations of our chicken logo to be catered to each subteam.

Strategy

With new members joining the Strategy Team, our experienced members have started introducing fundamental applications and advanced computer functions to the rookies. Through these new applications, they are teaching methods of analysis and introductory techniques for data collection. They are slowly implementing more advanced analysis techniques as they progress. Furthermore, they are studying the Minitrials rules to create a solid foundation for students to build upon. Learning these rules will allow students to focus on score optimization, whether it be brainstorming theoretical scoring situations or maximizing the point-to-time efficiency. So far, they have observed numerous past games, some of which span as far back as 1992, to make their calls about future scoring decisions. Speaking of future scoring decisions, they have started collecting data on other teams, learning about potential alliances while analyzing other teams’ strategies and performance data, and deciding which teams we are compatible with. This heavy emphasis on analysis is helping our team stay ahead of the game in terms of strategic planning. You bet that by the beginning of the first launch event, we will have a quick, structured, and refined approach to tackle this year’s game challenges.

Chicken Bot Pie is back and ready for this new season. We are so excited for all of the opportunities on our way this year

Thank you!!