Robots & history 2014 → today
Same students, new game, new robot. This is the story so far, from LEGO® bricks at Hope Horizon to a scoring elevator on the field in Houston.
01 Timeline
Our first FIRST® LEGO® League team is founded in partnership with Hope Horizon in East Palo Alto. Over the next six years it grows into three FLL teams and a real appetite for STEM in the community.
Two former FLL students, now in high school, launch the FIRST® Robotics Competition team: the ChurroBots, Team 8048. The first robot is a simple drivetrain. With mentorship from the Space Cookies (Team 1868), the team competes at its first Cal Games and takes home the Highest Seeded Rookie Award.
The team builds Connie for INFINITE RECHARGE. In-person competitions are cancelled in both 2020 and 2021, but the team keeps building.
RAPID REACT. The Mercury News visits the team building robots with spare parts out of a coach's garage: "It's like we're starting our own company."
CHARGED UP. A quick robot with a drop-down ground intake and the balance to dock on the charge station.
CRESCENDO. Canelo is part of the winning alliance at the Silicon Valley Regional, alongside the Blazing Bulldogs (581) and Citrus Circuits (1678), and the ChurroBots qualify for their first FIRST® World Championship in Houston, Texas.
REEFSCAPE. A square, fast-cycling robot that catches coral from the human station and scores on the reef's middle levels.
02 The robots
Each FRC game has its own field, game pieces, and scoring. Each robot below was designed for exactly one of them.
Connie collected and stored multiple power cells (foam balls) and deposited them in the scoring bin at the end of the field. In the end game it climbed the generator switch. Because of the pandemic there were no in-person competitions in 2020 or 2021.
Named for the heavy steel plates mounted underneath to keep it stable. Beefcake collected cargo with its intake and released it into the low section of the hub at the center of the field, then climbed the low and medium "monkey bars" in the end game. A bonus mechanism, the butter duster, deployed at the start of the match and fired cargo to deny the opposing alliance points during autonomous.
A super quick robot, hence the name. Speedy Hedgehog collected cubes with a drop-down ground intake, placed them in the low section of the grid, and could balance on the charge station.
Named after the boxer Canelo Álvarez. The team even reached out to him for support (no reply yet). Canelo had a speedy ground intake and shooter and could hang in harmony with other robots. Quick and slender, it maneuvered easily through the stage. Canelo won the 2024 Silicon Valley Regional as part of the winning alliance and took the team to the World Championship.
God of the sea, to match the theme. Poseidon scored on the reef's middle two levels (L2 and L3) and could harmonize with a partner in the end game. A square-based, quick robot built for fast cycles: catch from the human station, extend the elevator, score, repeat.
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