This past weekend marked the exciting kickoff of First Robotics Competition’s (FRC) 30th season with Destination: Deep Space, 2019’s FRC game.
This year, each robotics team is part of a deep space mission reminiscent of Andy Weir’s major motion picture “The Martian.” Alliances’ robots must race to replace missing hatch panels on a rocket and load the rockets with cargo all in time to return to the safe “habitat” before a sandstorm sweeps in. Destination: Deep Space will heavily emphasize an individual team’s ability to efficiently complete a plethora of tasks within a constrained time period.
Titanium Robotics cabinet members met at 7:00 a.m. this past Saturday morning in order to watch the reveal livestream and begin important conversations regarding strategy and design. By afternoon, the entire Titanium Robotics team gathered on campus to extensively research the 130-page game manual before presenting tactics, prototypes, and other ideas. On Sunday, Titanium Robotics members met outside of school, creating cardboard prototypes of mechanisms to serve as proofs of concept for previously discussed ideas. Moreover, these prototypes will later be used as visuals to explain ideas once design choices are finalized. Meanwhile, the computer-aided design (CAD) team, which developed CAD skills by working on street maps for local events over break, is preparing to CAD the finished mechanism prototypes. By the end of week 1, the prototyping process will be in full swing, and mechanical team members will be hard at work conducting more serious testing.
Although the 6-week build season has just begun, Titanium Robotics is fully operational and ready to complete another successful year of FRC Robotics. Once the build season is complete, the team will be hosting its annual Rollout event prior to regular competition season, which will open with Titanium Robotics attending the Orange County Regional during the first week of March and conclude with the Idaho Regional during the last week of March. These two regionals will each provide opportunities to earn a coveted spot to the FRC World Championships hosted in Houston in late April.
Titanium Robotics is a team consisting of over 100 students, mainly from San Marino High School, who come together with a common interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Students learn from professional engineers and mentors to build and compete in the annual FIRST Robotics Challenge with a robot of their own design. Programming, electrical work, computer-aided design, and business management are all run by student representatives, making the entire organization student-led from start to finish.
