Newsletter Pre-Week 3 2026

This is a very busy week for Chicken Bot Pie! This is our team's final week to finish up the robot and prepare for MinneTrials on Sunday, December 7th. This is our final preseason competition which will greatly prepare our new members for the season starting in January.

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Programming

With the MinneTrails competition coming up, the programming subteam has been continuing to work on the robot’s abilities, from its code to its physical features. The underclassmen specifically have been working on wiring on the robot, with some training from upperclassmen. In general, the underclassmen have been going through a lot of training this week, especially learning about the environment at competitions and what their roles could be. This will allow them to be better prepared in the possibly stressful situations that come with competition days.

An important part of the robot is its ability to detect objects, so the subteam has been improving this aspect to avoid clashing into things. A custom trajectory plan is being developed called Feather Flow. This software controls the robot at competitions while in auto mode. New batteries are being installed to ensure full power at competition. Finally, the programming subteam collaborates with the strategy subteam to train new robot drivers. The programming subteam is the best suited to describe the functions of different buttons on the robots controllers, as they are the ones who create the code that lays out the movement of a robot.

Build & Design

The build subteam is busy improving and finalizing the robot for MinneTrials. To make all the adjustments needed in a short and efficient amount of time, members split up their tasks. Caden, Blair, and Arnav are working on mounting the intake system, while Paxton is mounting the shooting system to the robot. All underclassmen are specifically working on the funnel which is essential for the human player to be able to feed game pieces to the robot.

The upperclassmen are supervising the whole process, jumping in wherever needed. More specifically, Emilio T is fixing the robot's motor so that it can run smoothly at competition. Oskar, Aaron, and Rainee are creating bumpers for the robot. Bumpers provide cushion for the robot, protecting all of its parts.

Operations

Sponsorships are essential to sustain any Robotics team. Because of their great importance, the operations subteam has been continuing to write more emails to more potential sponsors. Emails will begin to be sent out this week. All members of the team greatly appreciate the hard work they put in to contacting potential sponsors which continue to fund their passion. Executive summaries are due in February, so members are continuing to work on their specific prompts, answering them as thoroughly as possible with only 500 characters each. These executive summaries serve as a short overview of our team's successes, teamwork, and overall strong commitment. Executive summaries can help our team win the FIRST Impact Award, which is awarded to the team that best models the mission of FIRST. Their mission emphasizes not only skills in engineering, science, and technology, but also confidence, resilience, and leadership. Another important part of the team that isn’t given enough credit is our wonderful mentors. Without them, this team wouldn’t be possible. They provide intellect they have acquired from real life experiences and support all members to continue learning. The Woodie Flowers Award allows the students of the team to nominate a mentor who has consistently demonstrated their commitment to the team. Currently, returning students are being surveyed to vote on who they believe is most deserving of the award. More information on this mentor will be discussed soon!

Strategy

To prepare for the incoming Season Kickoff happening in just one month, our Strategy subteam has started the process of training new members for the drive team. The drive team is an important part of our team, as they are the people who control, repair and interact with the robot in competitions. There are five roles on the drive team: the Driver who controls the robots movement, the Operator who controls other mechanisms of the robot such as arms or elevators, the Drive Coach who makes strategy decisions, the Human Player who manipulates game pieces during the match, and the Technician who assists with setup or troubleshooting of the robot. All roles provide the drive team help, but in different, assigned ways.

With these specific roles, there is more clarity of who should be focused on what, allowing for full efficiency on their specific tasks. Because they are so crucial, the process for choosing these five people begins in the preseason. Strategy collects data from team members for interest, and pulls people interested for practice sessions using our practice field.

The practice field, including game pieces from the last season, gives both new and returning members a chance to see how a competition works firsthand, and see how all five roles work cohesively together to best drive a robot. Strategy uses the data to analyze both how many people are interested in trying out for the team, and participants’ innate skills to put together a drive team.

We encourage you to attend our competition at MinneTrails. We are very excited!

Thank you!!