First published in the Jan. 20 print issue of the San Marino Tribune.
By Celine Chih
Special to the Tribune
Titanium Robotics has entered its competition season and recently completed the first week of work sessions to continue its strong momentum toward this year’s competition.
Titanium Robotics is a team consisting of more than 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 the team’s 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.
Over the course of the past week, engineering members researched possible mechanisms of the robot and drafted rough designs of various parts of the robot. Members were split into five groups along with cabinet members to work on prototyping the intake, shooter, climber and transportation components of the robot.
Anderson Su, Srini Arumugham, Lilian Panning, Yuxiang Zhang and Gavin Morris talk through prototype designs.
The intake component is the mechanism allowing the robot to pick up cargo and the transportation allows the robot to bring such cargo to the top of the robot to be shot.
Another small team of members have been designated to build the field elements of the game. One of the main elements is the hub and hangar, which are where points will be scored either by shooting cargo or climbing. Building the field components is a necessary step that allows the team to practice playing the game prior to the competitions.
All of this work culminated at the group’s mentor review at the end of the week, where team alumni came — either in-person or virtually — to provide feedback on the wooden prototypes. A specific point of discussion was the choice of drivetrain, or the system that works with the engine of the robot, essentially allowing it to move around. On the business side, cabinet members have rebranded the team, designing new merchandise such as clothing items, banners and pin-buttons specific to the competition, along with reviving their presence on social media.
Overall, the team has maintained a strong member turnout at each of the daily work sessions. Currently, sessions take place Monday-Saturday from 3 p.m. to about 8 p.m. on weekdays, and from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturdays.
If you are interested in joining the team or have any questions, feel free to contact titaniumrobotics@gmail.com, or visit the group’s website at titaniumrobotics.com and @titaniumrobotics on Instagram for more information and updates on future events; the team is always looking for more hands and minds to help out.
Chih is events coordinator of Titanium Robotics.
