Team 766, M-A’s robotics team, embarked to Houston, Texas for the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) World Championships from April 15 to 19. This marked the first time in 11 years that M-A qualified for the championship, facing 600 of the best robotics teams in the world.
The team of about 40 members traditionally participates in the annual FIRST Robotics Competition, the regional prerequisite to the National championship, where teams work to build a fully functioning, 120-pound robot. The objective is to program robots to score segments of PVC pipes onto pegs and large playground-style balls into a net, with each team competing to score as many points as possible.
The team qualified for the national tournament at the regional competition, where they also won an award for their community impact developing engineering and STEM skills. They pride themselves in striving for a 50-50 gender balance in an often male-dominated field.
Not everything went according to plan. On the first day, the team encountered a technical error with their robot, jeopardizing their performance in the competition. “There was a faulty bearing in the mechanism that allows the robot to extend upward to score points,” senior Heidi Chen said.
Still, the team prevailed. On day two, they worked together to troubleshoot technical errors and took shifts to repair quickly.
“One of the main challenges of competitions like these is having a limited amount of time between matches to fix whatever problems come up,” senior Rajit Ghosh said. “That’s why building a reliable and serviceable robot is so important.”
To combat these last-minute challenges, the team created a clear pit workflow to diagnose and fix issues, which also helped prevent future malfunctions from arising. But some issues were even out of the team’s control.
“On day two, we encountered an incredibly rare bug in one of the electronics we bought that the suppliers had only seen once before,” Ghosh said.
Despite the unprecedented errors, the team continued to compete and troubleshoot, working together amidst the intense pressure.
After an extremely successful season, the team ended up returning a day early on Saturday night after being eliminated. Regardless, their qualification and performance in one of the most recognized robotics competitions demonstrate their resilience, talent, and dominance in robotics competitions. The team has seen tremendous growth in the past few years, bringing hope for even more future success.
“I’m confident that the team can repeat these successes in the near future, given how fast I’ve seen this team grow in the last few years,” Ghosh said. “I’m excited to see where the team ends up in a few more!”
Team 766 meets in the afternoon on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and on Saturday mornings in S-6 and the makerspace. For more information, follow Team 766 on Instagram or go to their website.
