Robotics is defined as the art of building mechanized machines that can do anything. In Jesuit Robotics, there are two teams, the FRC for the First Robotics Division and the FTC for the First Tech Competition. Members will often participate in both teams as they are very related, using the same materials and concepts.
FTC Right Now
Currently, the FTC’s challenge, The Ultimate Goal, is to use wobbles and rings to do a variety of tasks. These include shooting the rings into a goal and hitting different objects with it. Each action receives a certain number of points and the alliance with the greatest number of points wins that round. This alliance consists of two teams from different schools. The FTC team is building a robot that picks the rings up and then shoots them into the goal and performs other tasks.
“The FTC team consists of mostly freshmen, although this year, a few sophomores have decided to join again now that they know how to build a robot and have more ideas about how to properly streamline the system that the freshman use to create robots,” says Saikrishna Gujjarrlapudi ’23.
FRC Right Now
The FRC challenge is the same challenge as last year due to COVID, and this has never done before. “They are much more experienced, and Jesuit’s team has actually won before,” stated by Saikrishna Gujjarlapudi ’23. The current challenge, Infinite recharge, is quite similar to the Ultimate Goal. These include tasks where the robot has to catch and shoot dodgeballs into a small goal or high goal. They have certain tasks such as hanging on a rod at the end of the match or spinning a wheel to match a predetermined color.
COVID
Covid has presented both advantages and disadvantages to this year’s progress. There is significantly more time to work on robots. However, this year it is harder to communicate due to the mix of at home and in-school learning. Other than that, the tournaments are, mostly, proceeding as normal. The Jesuit teams are working hard to build and improve their designs, ready for what this year has for them.
Stay tuned to The Roundup for more coverage on Jesuit Robotics.
