Some of my projects are related to competition robotics- more specifically, the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). The aim of this page is to provide some useful background information regarding FRC that can be referenced in other projects.
WHAT IS FRC?
The Game
FRC is an international engineering challenge that is structured in the same way as interschool sports. Two "alliances", each with three mobile robots compete on a basketball-sized field to score more points. The way points are scored depends on the objectives for that year's game, which changes at the start of every year.
For example, 2023's game involved placing traffic cones on poles and inflatable cubes on platforms to score points. In 2024's game, robots shoot foam discs into goals at different positions and heights around the field, then climb up a hanging chain at the end of the match.
Following the year's game release, competition season starts with a ~6 week build, where over three thousand teams from around the world create a mobile robot specifically designed to compete in the game. Upon completition (hopefully), they attend regional events, competiting against up to fifty other local teams for a chance to attend the world championships in Houston.
FRC is not yet popular enough in Western Australia to warrant a regional, meaning the nearest event is in Sydney.
The Robots
FRC robots are not simple. They are built by 10-30 Highschool or First-year Uni students and comprise of several subsystems, namely, the Control system, Drivebase, Superstructure (everything above the drivebase) and Programming.
Let's look at a few examples of modern FRC robots to get an idea of how they work.
This robot is built by Team 254
in California for the 2022 game.
It is also the
championship-winning robot that year. It features
Two intakes to grab balls off the field floor, and a
complex 2-axis turreting flywheel shooter.
This is a CAD render of Washington Team 2910's robot
in 2023.
It features a 3 DOF telescoping arm that
extends a cone gripper mechanism out to reach the
highest rung. This team also pioneers the holonomic
swerve drive, similar to The first iteration of my own
drive platform.
Finally, this robot was built and driven by myself as part
of Team 4788, a community team based in Curtin
University. It is also made for the 2023 season,
with an
arm mounted on a vertically moveable pivot point.
This robot This robot was able to to compete at both the
Wollongong regional and the Houston Championship.
My Involvement in FRC
Since joining the program in September of 2019, I have been able to contribute to six robots during my time as a student, most notably in 2022 and 2023 where I was Design-Integration lead and mechanical team lead respectively. After graduating the program (Max age of 18), I have continued to mentor or coach multiple WA teams, Including one that I started in 2023 at my Alma Mater Highschool.
In late 2023, I was invited to join the "Unqualified Quokkas" Robot-in-three-days team, Consisting of nine other mentors from Australia's most elite FRC teams. The premise was, at the start of competition season, to build a complete competitive robot in just three days as a resource and/or example for FRC teams across Australia and around the world.
You can learn more about how that went here (spoiler: It went very very well).
In an effort to raise the floor for Wast-Australian teams, Myself and a friend set out to create a purpose-built CNC router capable of precisely and quickly manufacturing the complex metal parts used on FRC robot designs. Since completion in early 2024, It has since seen hundreds of hours of use, contributing parts towards over five robots. Learn more about this project here.
