Week 1 newsletter (2026)

Written by Sophia Thieringer, Connor Smith

Last weekend we got the rules for this year's FRC compaction Rebuilt; an archeology themed event with 7 different periods and scoring based on shooting fuel (balls) into a hub (basket). We now can get started on planning for competitions and building a robot.

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Programming

On the programming subteam, there is the creation of how the robot moves. For example, the sub team is building an auto planning system as well as a path planning system. The auto system determines the movements of the robot during the autonomous stage in a match: the first 20 seconds. After that, drivers take charge of the robots, using remotes that were coded by programming through the path planning system. It is essential that these systems are coded accurately, as it can be the difference between our robot actually being able to move or not. Another critical aspect that programming is working on is the robots ability to detect objects and certain colors. In matches, our robot is given the task to collect fuel, or yellow balls. In order to effectively accomplish this, the robot must be able to actually detect their presence. Additionally, being able to detect the rails that the robot climbs is crucial in order for it to lift itself up. Underclassmen have also been disassembling last year's swerve modules—the actual motor of the robot. This is a great learning opportunity for new members of the team as they get exposure to how exactly they will end up going about building a new motor this year.

Build & Design

With the new game being released so recently, Build is hard at work doing all of the pre building work. Prototyping parts of a robot is essential for the actual robot building to go as smoothly as possible. This is why the build subteam has split up and begun working on different parts specifically. Kali, Arnav, and Aaron are working on the intake—the part of the robot that

takes in fuel. They are determining how many wheels are best suitable, their size, and their compression. Emilio T, Kendrick, and Sam are working on the

climber—the part that allows the robot to climb the rails for points. Rainee, Oskar, and Blair are working on the indexer. The indexer allows for fuel to climb up from the intake to the shooter. This is possible through wheels that rotate, pulling up the fuel. Paxton is focusing on the shooter, which is essential for scoring points by shooting fuel to the hub. There will be a turret to angle the shooter so our robot can shoot from almost anywhere on the field.

Operations

In this busy time at the beginning of our new season, it is important to keep everyone—students, mentors, parents—informed about all plans. Everything can get jumbled together with so many new ideas and prototypes being made as the new

game just dropped this past Saturday. That is why the Operation subteam creates Newsletters—just like the one you are currently reading!  Aside from the newsletters we are working our hardest to get enough fundraising to build our robot, transport it, and enter all the competitions. To do this we are filling out grants, talking with companies, and going door to door; anything we can to accomplish our monetary goals! Finally a few members of the operations team are writing a submission for the woodie flowers award, an award celebrating a mentor that stands out in FRC.

Strategy

With the new game being released, the strategy subteam is now able to determine new strategies that can lead to the best success. The game structure that is most essential to scoring points is The Hub. The Hub is in the center of the arena, and it is the only location in which to score fuel, and it is the only way to score points during most of the game. Because of this importance for scoring, strategy is working on estimating cycle counts of scoring in the hub in order to estimate what game score lines are going to look like. This research is important because it lets the build subteam benchmark appropriately and strive to create a robot that can play at a high level. The strategy subteam is also working on this year's playbook. The playbook contains strategies used by our team for

the specific game, and also acts as a preserver to our team's knowledge for future generations. Finally, Thursday of this week, the strategy subteam hosted a Drive Team test. This test contained a variety of questions—from dimensions to scoring points—testing out potential Drive Team members.

We are so excited to begin the new season of Robotics!

Thank you!!