Keystone’s FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) team, Reaching for the Skynet (RfS), just finished their 2021-2022 season, bringing home the Team Spirit award from the Pasadena, Texas competition. The team’s events this year marked our first ever in-person competitions, and we learned exponentially throughout and helped other teams grow. For any future rookie teams, members for FRC, or anyone interested, here is a collection of my thoughts and advice for preparing for FRC. 

Wins from this Season

Beyond simply awards, however, our team was also actively involved in helping other teams, which I would highly recommend to do if time permits. In between matches, as the senior software lead, I went around to other teams without autonomous code and programmed it for them. Not only did this help the teams secure an extra two points each match, but it gave me the opportunity to learn how to use Sparks, a newer motor controller that is rising in popularity. With the code, I added comments and walked the team’s software lead through what I was doing so they could build off of it when they were back in their shop. At our first competition at Waco, I helped mentor rookie team 8858 who later went on to win 1st place. At our second competition in Pasadena, I ensured that every team had autonomous code at the competition, mentoring two more teams. While our team still had substantial room for growth, it was amazing that we could share the knowledge we had to help other teams. I would highly recommend helping teams during downtime. 

Inspection and Bumpers

During our first competition, one of the hardest parts was passing inspection. Specifically, bumpers gave us serious problems, as we had to redo them completely. So, prior to a competition, ensure that the robot passes every item on the inspection list and take special care to follow the FRC standards when building the bumpers. Also, in the Waco competition, we used two sets of red and blue bumpers that we had to switch out between matches, and if we had limited time in between matches, it would be nightmarish. To resolve this, between the Waco and Pasadena competitions, one of our team members built a single set of bumpers with Velcro such that we could easily switch the colour without mounting and remounting the bumpers. 

Scouting

Scouting, specifically pit scouting, is when team members go around to other teams and essentially ask what they can do. In Pasadena, we were able to streamline the process, compiling a master list of every team’s functionalities. This is extremely important as it helped tenfold with strategizing for each match, as we knew what our team members could do and what the opponent alliance could do and could plan an appropriate strategy. Because of our amazing scouts, we were able to be one of the dominant alliance partners in all of our matches for strategy. Furthermore, scouts can continue to watch matches and mark what teams are able to do, overall monitoring whether teams can consistently deliver what they said they can. 

Never Underestimate Defense

In one of our matches, our alliance partner warned us that the other team played good defense. We didn’t think much of it till that very robot slammed us about ten seconds into the teleoperated period and disabled our robot for the rest of the match. Lesson learned: defense bots can be brutal. Though on a similar note, when receiving the scouting data, it’s often helpful to know where a robot has to be when it shoots to know exactly where to block it. 

Read the Manual!

This should go without saying, but make sure everyone is familiar with the manual and the Team Updates that are periodically released. I would even recommend re-reading the rules and fouls before the competition as a refresher. 

That concludes my suggestions for any rookie team for competition. It was an amazing experience to finally get to compete in person this year, RfS’s first time in three years. If you would like to support Keystone’s three-time-award-winning robotics team, feel free to donate and support us on the Keystone website! As the seniors and I graduate, I look forward to the amazing new heights the club will reach.