By Kaitlyn An
Special to the Tribune
San Marino High School’s Titanium Robotics is approaching their last build week after having worked since the beginning of the year to construct this season’s robot.
With the completion of the robot’s elaborate composition, designs and functions, the engineering team spent this past week honing in on final details to prepare the robot for their community showcase event, Rollout, and two upcoming competitions.
In mechanical engineering, the team redesigned and assembled the robot’s claw, which is used to pick up game pieces during competitions. On the programming side, Programming Captain Marcus Koh has led the group in working on the robot’s path, which is drawn for the robot to track.
The team has also focused on computer vision through debugging the bot’s Jetson Nano computer to run vision processing on its Graphics Processing Unit, which is important for the robot’s identification and detection of objects.
In anticipation for Titanium’s FIRST Robotics competitions, the team has put together a Drive Team, made up of select members in charge of controlling the robot in the game arena. After holding try-outs where contestants drove the robot and completed assessments, Titanium announced this year’s Drive Team: Howard Huang, Nicholas Chua, Riley Sullivan, Sophia Hou, Marcus Koh and alternate Gavin Morris.
Once the Drive Team practiced with the claw’s new design, the team moved to the final stages of disassembling the robot, painting the frame their signature Titanium Blue, as well as brainstorming the robot’s name.
Over Presidents Day weekend, the engineering team gathered to reassemble and rewire the robot in preparation for Rollout, where the bot’s capabilities will be displayed to the public. The event is taking place on Saturday, Feb. 25, from 1-2:30 p.m., at the San Marino High School robotics room (308), and all are welcome.
“The entire team has been working incredibly hard to prepare for upcoming competitions as the engineering team has worked almost every day late into the night to build us an impressive bot, and our business team has written multiple award essays and worked on branding for competitions,” said Makenna Wong, Titanium’s business vice president.
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.
An is the writer for Titanium Robotics.
