In order to prepare the entire team for build season, Chantilly Robotics Team 612 has prepared a “design and build” challenge titled “Christmas Conundrum”. In this challenge, the team designs a robot that will retrieve objects on the ground, known as presents. The team then has to make a choice to put the presents into one of the three goals, a stocking, santa’s present bag, or under the christmas tree. Each goals are labeled as high, medium, and low level goals respectively. The objective of the robot is to lob tennis balls in the middle and high goals, while stacking boxes into the low goal. Members with different skill sets were placed into groups to design their own part of the robot. “We want to give new members a chance to build a robot based off of a game” Chief Operations Officer Roshan Rachapudi said. “This is also a good opportunity to give our new captains and leaders experience on how to lead members. I think we took it also took it a step further in preparing people for kickoff because instead of just having a design practice like in previous years, members are actually practicing building.” Evidently, the challenge is serving its function. New members of the Team 612 feel enabled and prepared to work during build season. “I’ve learned how to use a lot of the machines in the workshop like the drill press, the band saw and the chop saw”, said Sam Shakawith. “When we were working in our groups, the captains let us do a lot of the work”, said Harini Sethu.“I learned how to use Inventor and how to work with other people whilst doing so”, Some members have said that they have gained a positive impression of Team 612 through the challenge. “Pre-season is showing me how 612 really works together as a team”, Jessica Yang said. Overall, Chantilly Robotics FRC Team 612 is finding new ways to best prepare our members and leaders to maximize their potential for the upcoming 2019 FRC season. When build season starts in January 2019, members will be not only be familiar but experienced with the design process and the machinery used to construct the robot. The “Christmas Conundrum” has been an effective way for team members to learn from experience and refine their craft. Given that major success of this mock competition, Team 612 is well prepared for build season.

Press Release December 2018