” Gracious Professionalism “
The First Tech Challenge is an international robotics competition that challenges teams of middle and high school students to design, build, and program robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. Up to 16 team members from grade 7-12 can participate in the competition, making robot and operating robot together. The competition in an alliance format and it is head-to-head. Teams can compete in different regional in different times. Students in team, with the guidence by adults coaches and mentors, they can develop the STEM skill and promote the comprehensive application ability. Designing, building, programming and operating the robot is not a simple work, during the time, students work as a team, realizing the value of hard work and innovation. In addition, many special skill from many team duties are very helpful for the future, such as java programming, especially in nowdays, the world of digital technology including AI.
The First Tech Challenge also follows the development of The Times. The theme of each season and the technologies using by different teams have always been innovative, such as the intelligent image recognition technology. With the applications in these fields, by students who participate in, they can better fit into this era.
For more information, please find out at: FIRST Tech Challenge | FIRST (firstinspires.org)
FTC 2024-2025 Season
On Saturday night (GMT+8), there will be a live stream of the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Global Opening Ceremony (United States September 7 at 12 p.m. ET, September 8 at 0:00 a.m. EDT), with the season theme being an RTX-sponsored FIRST Tech Challenge Season INTO THE DEEP, part of the FIRST DIVE Season presented by Qualcomm, with all game details available on the More Season Information page: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc/game-and-season.
We’re excited to dive in to this year’s FIRST Tech Challenge Game, INTO THE DEEP presented by RTX, as part of our FIRST DIVE presented by Qualcomm season! Get all the game details on our Game and Season Information webpage: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc/game-and-season
Need help? Look here!
With the new season comes A LOT of new issues and a need for ideas, especially for rookie teams.
Iron Maple is here to help. We would be constantly updating our thought process and our robot ideas to aid those who are in need. We understand how frustrating it could be for teams to figure out a “just right” design for their robot, and there isn’t one. However, because of how the FIRST community works, ideas worldwide can be shared, communicated, and discussed. We are here to do our part in that so teams can create their ideal robot.
There is only so much that could be posted on this website. Please check out our Git-Hub for more information and updates on our approach to the FTC 2024-2025 Season INTO THE DEEP.
Week1 Info
Check out this video by AndyMark. It provides detailed introductions to how the game pieces work and gives an example of what a robot for this season might look like.
Week2 Info
For the past week, we have been working on creating two intake designs for this season. Both designs can be used independently and in combination with both.
An intake with only a clip that picks up a Sample and clips onto the Submersible and into the side baskets would be insufficient and require some accuracy when intaking. On the other hand, while a “scoop up” can make taking the Sample easier, without a second mechanism, it can only score by placing the Sample in the high or lower baskets.
As the FTC program at Iron Maple is for new students and teammates to get familiarized with the FIRST competition, we would have to create a robot that was easy for anyone to control; thus, we had the idea of combining the two. First, the intake would scoop up the Sample and then send it back to the clip mechanism for scoring both on the high and low baskets and the Submersible. When picking up the Specimen, it would be placed on the side walls, and then the clip intake would turn 180 degrees. Then, the Specimen would be picked up and scored onto the Submersible.
Week3 Info
During week 3 we were able to create our first robot, currently, it is not able to move yet but it includes the same functions introduced last week.