FRC Team 254

2022 · Sideways

My role: Electrical & Mechanical Lead

Sideways combined swerve drive, two full-width intakes, a cargo serializer, a turreted shooter with an adjustable hood, and a traversal climbing mechanism. These systems supported a strategy centered on fast cargo cycles and a strong endgame.

As an electrical and mechanical lead, I contributed across the build and integration process. My work connected mechanical hardware with the electrical systems needed to operate it, alongside the ongoing assembly and troubleshooting that came with preparing the robot for competition.

Being part of that season showed me how much competition performance depends on the preparation behind it: careful integration, testing, maintenance, and people willing to keep working through problems.

2023 · Breakdown

My role: Laterator Design Owner & Electrical Lead

Breakdown used a vertical elevator, an extending laterator, and a distal gripper to position cones and cubes for scoring. The robot also incorporated a ground intake, swerve drive, and deployable forks.

In 2023, I owned the laterator design, served as electrical lead, and contributed extensively to the CAD and overall mechanical design of the robot. This gave me responsibility for a major mechanism while remaining closely involved with the systems around it.

Our robot finished as the highest-ranked robot worldwide by OPR. That accomplishment reflected the combined work of the team across mechanisms, controls, driving, strategy, and competition support.

OPR is a statistical estimate of scoring contribution, distinct from championship results.

Laterator design

The laterator provided the robot’s extending reach, carrying the gripper outward from the elevator. Coordinating vertical positioning with horizontal extension allowed the robot to reach scoring locations while retaining a compact retracted pose.

My design responsibility

Owning the laterator meant thinking beyond the nominal extended and retracted positions. I worked through the mechanism’s CAD, packaging, and interfaces while considering how it connected to the elevator, gripper, and complete robot.

The design needed to balance reach, stiffness, mass, and assembly complexity. Because the gripper sits at the end of the extension, its mass and loading affect the behavior of the entire mechanism.

• CAD & mechanical interfaces Developing the mechanism within the overall assembly and accounting for neighboring structures, travel, and mounting locations.
• Extension & packaging Balancing useful reach with the space available when the mechanism retracts.
• Structure & moving mass Considering the relationship between stiffness, weight, and the loads carried by an extended mechanism.
• Build & integration Working through the practical differences between an assembly in CAD and hardware that needs to move reliably on a robot.

Structural development

The team’s published technical discussion describes a three-stage laterator using carbon-fiber tubes and lightweight rolling bushings. It also documents structural challenges and reinforcement changes during the season.

That development process reinforced an important lesson for me: selecting lightweight materials is only part of the problem. Joint details, contact loads, assembly methods, and unexpected impacts also determine how well a mechanism survives.

Electrical integration

Electrical leadership was a major part of my contribution across both seasons. Working on both mechanical and electrical systems gave me a broader view of the robot: a mechanism’s design affects where its wiring can run, how components can be accessed, and how easily the assembly can be maintained.

I contributed substantial time to the physical build and integration process, working with the team to connect mechanical development with the electrical implementation. In 2023, I combined that role with laterator ownership and significant contributions to the overall robot CAD.

These seasons helped me understand why electrical access, moving connections, and serviceability need attention while the mechanical design is still taking shape.

Build and competition photos

Competition was the visible part of a much larger effort. The workshop and event work—building, checking, adjusting, and getting ready to run again—was where I spent much of my time.