By Kaitlin An
Special to the Tribune
After weeks of hard work, San Marino High School’s Titanium Robotics team is welcoming the community to its annual Rollout event, which celebrates the end of their build season on Saturday, Feb. 25, from 1-2:30 p.m.
The team will be showcasing this year’s robot at San Marino High School in the robotics room (308). The build process has been entirely student-led and is the culmination of work in mechanical and electrical engineering, Computer Aided Design and programming.
Since the beginning of the year, Titanium has been working six days a week to construct this season’s robot, which they will take to FIRST Robotics competitions in both Orange Country and the Silicon Valley. Annually, FIRST Robotics issues a unique game that teams around the world must design their robots to compete in.
This year’s energy storage game requires the robots to pick up and deliver game pieces to grids in order to earn points. To start building, the team held work sessions after school where members began sorting parts, programming and prototyping. The group started depicting initial robot parts using Computer Aided Design to virtually simulate the robot’s performance and worked on programming everything from object detection to odometry for the robot’s positional awareness.
Having moved from initial prototypes to actual assembly early on, the team has had an extremely productive season. Titanium was able to finalize both a Swerve Drivetrain to give the robot heightened mobility, and a pneumatic claw to pick up game elements. After perfecting the robot’s arm mechanics and designing its electrical board, the engineering team focused on programming and driving practice in the team’s hand-built replica of this year’s arena.
With the bot in its final stages, the team is excited to present their work to the public during Rollout, where they will display everything the robot can do.
“The students have accomplished so much in the realm of STEM and robotics, and Rollout is a great opportunity for the community to see what they have done,” said Titanium’s mentor Shawn Thai.
All are welcome to join Titanium families, mentors, alumni, and sponsors in seeing the robot live and in action. Whether one is interested in robotics, or simply have a free afternoon, Titanium encourages everyone to come to their showcase of creativity and innovation.
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 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.
Kaitlin An is the writer for Titanium Robotics.
