Convergence:
Build Week 5 & 6, which spans work days 21 to 30 for our team, is the time of convergence. The drivetrain and Control System Board (CSB) were completed by Work Day 12. The software groups worked on code to validate what would be required for each of their respective subsystems. The various CAD groups turned prototypes into real subsystems, going through many preliminary design reviews (PDRs), iterations, and then final critical design reviews (CDRs). The Spindexer (dye-rotor), floor, and racetrack required some extra time to finalize their designs. During this time, the manufacturing group started to manufacture subsystems that cleared their CDR phase, our 3D printers have been working overtime as well. Subsystems assembly teams have been very busy. Our three robot driver candidates continued to practice with our prior-season robots to become familiar with optimal drive paths within the Alliance and Neutral zones, traversing the bump, and going under the trench.
Intake and Store:
Assembly work was completed on the intake and store. The Control Systems team completed all the wiring. We moved the robot to the field to validate the end to end operation by running several tests. Our robot driver was able to test acquisition of game pieces running at various speeds while the intake and store hardware and software team validated that everything operated within the functional requirements.
Spindexer:
We finished the manufacturing of the dye rotor and began assembly. Due to the relative complexity of the dye rotor, we created and followed detailed assembly instructions along with the CAD to assemble the dye rotor. We mounted the dye rotor to our competition drivetrain to run some initial testing, which helped us create minor changes and adjustments. We created multiple hook designs that can quickly be swapped to try to optimize the design. Unfortunately, the steel central gear that we outsourced to a 3rd party had some quality issues, so we cut our own with our industrial technology classes’ waterjet. We are continuing with testing and making refinements to the hook design; the floor and racetrack still need to be finalized.
Turret/Shooter:
Over these past two weeks, software has been testing their code on the turret on beta bot, tuning the PID and making the shooter point at the hub at all times. After completion of this code, we took the turret off beta bot to flesh out the final wiring for the turret. We are currently testing different ribbon designs with a steel backing, cable shroud, and bare silicone. After we decide which wiring solution would be best, we will move forward to integrate the custom wire ribbon with the turret and shooter.
Strategy Team Leads, Pit Team Leads, and Drive Team:
Sunny Guan, our Strategy Mentor with the help of our Team Managers (Robotics Teachers) Ms. Fan and Ms. Maruvada, held interviews with the candidates for the Strategy Team, and Drive Team. Our lead mentor also finalized the HW, SW and Control Systems Pit team leads.
There has been a big focus this year on prioritizing more driver practice for our three driver candidates, Alex, Kousha, and Alejandro on our practice field. The additional driver practice was appreciated by our driver candidates, and their improvement on the Rebuilt field was notable; making the final robot driver selection a tough one.
For the Rebuilt season we are happy to announce the following positions.
- Strategy Chief: Connor Young
- Strategy VP: Anya Agarwal
- Scouting Managers: Eric Jacobson and William Han
- Drive Coach: James Smith
- Primary Robot Driver: Kousha Ardakani
- Back-up Robot Driver: Alejandro Chavez Sermeno
- Technician: Maxwell Tan
- Hardware Pit Executive: Piper Robinson
- Software Pit Executive: Maxwell Tan
- Control Systems Lead: Avik Agarwal
We will announce our Human Player and the other students who will be providing our Pit Team Leads with critical support at competitions ahead of our week 2 Silicon Valley District event.
971 Week 0 Scrimmage:
The team has been laser focused on fielding a complete robot at the 971 Week 0 scrimmage on 2/28/26. Everything is coming together nicely; the drive team is looking forward to getting some practice time with the fully integrated robot the week leading up to the scrimmage. The software group will also perform end to end system testing and optimization of all their code ahead of the scrimmage.
You can continue to track our build season progress at our website’s photo album.
