With the return of the school year, the First Tech Challenge also returns too. This year’s First Tech Challenge is Biobuzz, presented by RTX, part of the First Canopy season. This year, STEALTH is running two FTC teams, 22152 Smelt, and 7759 Autonomous Prime. However, unlike previous team models for our FTC season where we ran a beginner team, mixed team, and advanced team, this year STEALTH is operating under two teams, completely mixed of all skill levels. This allows all to learn from those with experience who may be graduating, to pass down knowledge and hopefully eliminate the knowledge gap that occurs when skilled members leave.

First Tech Challenge Kickoff

Now let’s talk about the kickoff to the season. STEALTH hosted a watch party as the game was released that morning, and as a team STEALTH was able to analyze the game before they split into smaller groups to plan ideas for the upcoming season.

If you want to watch the game animation explaining the game it can be found here: BIOBUZZ presented by RTX Game Animation
And if you want to read the rulebook in its entirety, it can be found here: manual

The teamwork showed over this first meeting, the collaboration between all skill levels, and the work put in to solve common goals and problems was inspirational! There was so many ideas that it became hard to start evaluating the best designs and game strategies to focus on, and the day ended with a creative buzz in the air. I’m very hopeful to see where our teams head!

The First Meetings

Following our kickoff meeting, we were able to run a first meeting where everyone got a basic rundown of our design software (Onshape), which should help everyone get a basic understanding of how to start putting parts together and navigate building whatever designs each team makes. The results were impressive, seeing how rookies to the team started putting together parts without “training wheels” help and experienced designers supporting those who needed support.

At the next meeting, we followed an old tradition of having the rookies take apart the old FTC bots. This gives a hands-on experience, while also teaching hardware and other design ideas. It also gives them a sense of all the components that are required on the robots, such as the driver hubs used to program the bot, or the motors in the drive base to keep the robot rolling.

In the next following meeting, the teams researched different strategies and designs used in the early competitions, such as Robot in 3 Days and Robot in 30 hours, as well as analyses of the game and robot reveals that seemed promising. Looking ahead to the first competition, we can’t wait to see where both teams head, with potentially different archetypes and unique design choices! Go STEALTH!