After exciting anticipation for the game reveal over winter break, we gathered to watch FIRST’s live stream. We then went straight to reviewing the game manual and brainstorming robot strategies. Our first few days of the season were spent honing in on our robot’s functional requirements and strategy. We also met with the FRC teams BREAD, GravitechX, and NerdHerd to get an outside perspective and exchange ideas. 
After deciding our initial strategy, we researched design ideas, taking inspiration from past games and open alliance teams. Before committing to any specific robot design, the team split into Design Groups, each tasked with exploring separately to avoid the entire team fixating on just one design. These teams focused on analyzing scoring potential, identifying challenges, and understanding the game’s nuances to optimize gameplay efficiency. Then, we reconvened to collaborate and discuss overarching designs to decide what we would need to prototype. We decided to prototype a ground intake that picks up coral from all orientations and a climbing mechanism inspired by Rust Hounds from Ri3d.
In conjunction with the prototyping groups, a separate group focused on designing the first iteration of our Alphabot. The Alphabot combines our off-season project, a two-stage cascading elevator, a coral station human-player feeder intake, and a roughly prototyped outtake. While the Alphabot does not meet the regulatory requirements for FRC competition, it incorporates most of the features and functions intended for our final design. Its flexibility allows the team to bypass certain constraints, enabling rapid prototyping and fast assembly. The Alphabot is a valuable tool for the drive and programming teams, providing an early platform to refine skills and develop our autonomous routines. This early testing phase accelerates our development timeline, allowing the entire team to address potential issues and refine our strategy before the official build is completed.
We have also begun machining our competition robot’s 26 x 26 drivetrain. We assembled new swerve modules for the robot and are finishing the control system board. We are excited to continue prototyping throughout the week and working towards our final robot architecture.
Finally, some elements of our practice field were completed this weekend. We currently have the barge’s frame (not including the net or the cages) and the reef, which is completely done.
Over the course of this week, we brainstormed robot strategies and functional requirements, collaborated with three other FRC teams, researched design ideas, created an Alpha Bot, and started setting up our practice field.
