Starting in middle school and continuing all through high school (2019-2022 seasons) I was a part of FRC 4186: The Alameda Aztechs. First Robotics Competition (FRC) is a robotics challenge where high schoolers design and build 100 pound robots designed for a different game each year. Then, they compete their robot with and against other teams from all around the world.

I worked on every aspect of the robot; focusing mostly on mechanical design and fabrication but touching on the programming, electrical, and pneumatic systems as well. For design and fabrication I taught myself CAD and learned to use every tool in the shop. One particular fascination of mine was swerve drives, a special robot drivetrain that lets can drive in any direction while retaining grip and power. I created multiple of my own designs. I started with a subscale prototype during the pandemic:

To make this prototype I taught myself new 3d printing techniques and went through many versions until it was functional. I then moved onto designing a full scale version. Due to budget and personnel constraints, this never made it out of CAD. It was designed for manufacturability with tools the team owned and to minimize cost by using COTS parts whenever possible. It was also designed to be better than any other swerve drive that was on the market. For example, it’s unusually large wheel simultaneously allow for better grip and higher speed. Here is the CAD model:

In retrospect, there are details that I would change about this design having gone through engineering school but I believe that the overarching concept is solid and would be highly competitive.