The 2024 First Robotics Competition (FRC) kicked off on 6 January 2024, when the game details were released. The Carmel Senior Robotics team is racing against time to complete our robot. The competition will be held in USA in March, but we have compressed our schedule to complete the robot by Chinese New Year.

In addition to the technical challenges, we are learning, sometimes the hard way, about all the various problems with project management, such as getting materials on time, deadlines, rework, and agreeing on design specifications.

This has been a transformative experience for all of us, mentors and students alike. In the next couple of weeks we will be looking forward to the driver training and fine tuning. These will be exciting times ahead.

Mr. Sunny Ma, Robotics Team Director

This week is the second week of the Robotics build season. Our team has been tirelessly working on the creation of our robot that we will compete with in the First Robotics Competition. The First Robotics Competition, also known as the FRC is a global competition in which teams build robots to achieve certain goals, such as picking up a ball and shooting it into a hoop, or climbing from hanging bars. 

Each year, the goal for the competition is different. This year we have to pick up a donut shaped object from the floor and shoot it into:
an angled opening facing the floor and 
a flat rectangular opening perpendicular to the floor. 

So far, our team has built the Chassis of the robot and coded the drivetrain. We also have built the “shooter” that we will use to take the donut-shaped objects and fire it into the goals. We are gearing up for the competition and are incredibly excited.

Peter, Grade 9

For the past three months the Elsa High School Robotics team have been  working tirelessly around the clock to prepare our robot that we will use for our FIRST Robotics Competition in March. 

This week we had the privilege of pitching in front of the School Board for fundraising to help us fund our venture. With regards to our robot, it is currently moving around and the shooter is being worked on. We have students working on the designs for the intake mechanisms and the roller mechanism. The entire robotics team has dedicated our weekends and recesses to making sure our robot is competition ready! 

Thank you to Mr. Ma and Mr. November for all their help and to the School Board for considering our proposal. We’re excited and looking forward to further developing our build and our skills!

Annabelle Zagury, Grade 10