Subteams

Business & Marketing

The business team is in charge of tracking and recruiting new sponsors every year to help fund the team. The marketing team helps with the team t-shirts and Jackets. They make awards for other teams to support them and show that ‘ Gracious Professionalism’ is a way of working that encourages high-quality work while respecting other team members, teams, mentors, and the community. 

CAD/3D Printing

Our CAD and 3dprinting team uses CAD tools to design custom parts; Robot parts, Prototypes, and Workspace tools/organization of the robot parts. This team is responsible for creating physical parts; 3D Print (or CNC) what we’ve designed, and testing that our models work. The team can rework and change parts accordingly. For example, they design an electrical board using Fusion 360 for the electrical team.  

Electrical

Our electrical team builds the nervous system of our robot, connecting the information the programmers give to the brain of the robot and connecting it to the motors. They create the hub, which we use to attach electronic components with wires and motor controllers. They control anything moving or turning on the robot.  We have been working hard to eliminate waste by giving extra planning and recycling parts from our old robots. Using power poles (electrical connectors, crimps, wire cutters, and many other tools to do their work), applying AP physics, circuitry, current, voltage, resistance, and the electrical processes behind every robot.

Mechanical

Our team builds the physical robot from scratch. We use various tools, such as drill drivers, drill presses, horizontal and vertical band saws, 3-D printers, sanders, and other equipment, materials, and hardware, based on that season’s challenge. This challenge is different every year, and it’s Mechanical’s job to create and implement mechanisms for the unique game.

Special Operations

The pit is an area designated for the team during competitions. It contains tools needed to adjust and fix the robot if needed, provide communication documents about the event, and for the team to gather/provide a presence for others attending the competition. Teams get creative in building and decorating their space to represent their team. This subteam is responsible for designing the layout for the pit. Also, create pit elements and displays. organizing the pit in competitions and the trailer before competitions. 

Programming

Programming develops software programs that control the robot’s subsystems. The team develops both teleoperated (driver-controlled) and autonomous code for each part of a match. They use the Java programming language to write control programs for motors and pneumatic pistons.

Safety

The safety team is in charge of the safety of the team, tools, and the buildspace. They make sure that everyone has access to safety glasses and regularly address the team about the safety rules. The team knows all the safety rules by using posted signs on the walls of the buildspace.

Additionally: 

• Create a FIRST animation
• Create posters, quizzes, and presentations
• Keep safety info up to date and record Injuries
• Attend competition safety meetings
• Communicate safety rules

Service & Outreach

The service and outreach subteam conducts team events to provide community service and to share information about the team and the program to the community. The team helps the Lions Club tree sales, assists Rotary with their annual Helping Hands day (doing yard work for seniors, for example), and conducts demos in the local schools and library. We participate in the Dexter Memorial Parade every year, showing thousands of people our hard work.

Strategy & Scouting

Strategy determines the focus and priorities for building the robot based on the strengths of the team. Scouting, on the other hand, observes the other robots during matches to plan how to work with ally teams to identify the strengths and weaknesses of other teams

Vision

The Vision team writes programs for Raspberry Pis attached to the bot, which take input from cameras around the bot and process that data to give vital information to Programming, such as the distance to a target. We work in Python using maths to extract the needed data from the images; in addition, we get experience using a UNIX command line when they interact with running scripts to debug the code.