JAG Robotics FIRST Tech Challenge 2024-25

Background

JAG Robotics is a high school club participating in the 2024-25 FIRST Tech Challenge, titled "Into The Deep." This competition encourages students to design, build, and program robots to complete specific tasks. The challenge involves not only technical skills but also teamwork, strategic planning, and problem-solving abilities.

The FIRST Tech Challenge

Full details can be found here.

In summary:

Your team is tasked with designing and building a robot to compete in a series of challenges. Each challenge has specific objectives and scoring criteria, requiring your robot to perform tasks such as navigating obstacles, manipulating objects, and collaborating with other robots. Your solutions must be innovative, efficient, and reliable to succeed in the competition.

Additionally, there are opportunities to earn extra points through creative design, effective programming, and demonstrating strong teamwork and communication skills. The competition also includes a presentation round where teams showcase their robot and explain their design choices and strategies.

Design Choices

When preparing for this competition, we considered several strategies to tackle the challenges effectively.

1. Focus on understanding the challenge requirements thoroughly before designing the robot.
2. Divide the tasks among team members based on individual strengths.
3. Use pair programming and collaborative design sessions to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
4. Implement a version control system to manage code changes and collaborate effectively.

After careful consideration, we decided to use a combination of individual task assignments and collaborative sessions. This approach allowed us to leverage each team member's strengths while ensuring that complex tasks were tackled collaboratively.

The First Iteration

Our initial approach involved setting up a development environment with all necessary tools and libraries. We chose Java as our primary programming language due to its robustness and familiarity.

We started by building simpler components to build confidence and establish a workflow. Each team member took on a task, wrote the initial code, and then reviewed it with another team member. This process helped us catch errors early and improve our solutions.

We also set up a repository on GitHub to manage our code and track changes. This allowed us to collaborate effectively and ensure that everyone had access to the latest code.

The Problems with the First Iteration

During our initial attempts, we encountered several challenges. Some tasks were more complex than anticipated, requiring a deeper understanding of robotics and programming. We also faced issues with time management, as some tasks took longer to complete than expected.

One significant issue was with handling edge cases. Our initial solutions often failed when tested with unusual or extreme scenarios. To address this, we implemented more rigorous testing and reviewed our code to ensure it handled all possible scenarios.

Another challenge was optimizing our code for performance. Some tasks required efficient algorithms to ensure the robot performed well within the time limits. We spent additional time refining our solutions and learning new techniques to improve our code's efficiency.

Building a Second Iteration

After identifying the issues with our first iteration, we decided to refine our approach. We focused on improving our problem-solving strategies and optimizing our code.

We started by revisiting the tasks we struggled with and analyzing our solutions. We identified areas for improvement and implemented more efficient algorithms. We also practiced solving similar tasks to build our skills and confidence.

To improve our collaboration, we held regular team meetings to discuss our progress and share insights. We also used online resources and tutorials to learn new techniques and approaches.

Competition Day!!!

On the day of the competition, we were excited and nervous. We didn't know what to expect, but we were confident in our preparation and teamwork.

The Challenge

The challenge was an intense event where we had to complete a series of tasks with our robot. The tasks required us to navigate obstacles, manipulate objects, and collaborate with other robots. This was a challenging task, but we worked together effectively and managed to complete it within the time limit.

The Results

The results were announced during the closing ceremony. We were thrilled to hear that we placed second out of 25 teams! It was a proud moment for us, and we were grateful for the support of our teachers, classmates, and parents.

Overall, the FIRST Tech Challenge was a challenging and rewarding experience. It helped us improve our coding skills, learn new techniques, and work effectively as a team.