The competition involves scoring points by interacting with mechanisms in a 2-minute match. Students spend a semester building robots within power, weight, material, and size constraints. Common tactics include blocking opponents, quickly scoring points, and developing reliable high-return strategies. Considered the capstone for MIT MechE sophomores, 2.007 originated the high school FRC competitions.
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I designed a modular robot that could split into two smaller bots at the start, allowing me to double points on the highest-scoring mechanism during the autonomous period while simultaneously driving to the multiplier before my opponent. To optimize the motors, I either constrained degrees of freedom to reduce motor count or had motors serve dual functions like lifting a pinion and spinning a damped ring. By maximizing motor power in these ways, I was able to execute quick, reliable scoring strategies that led to winning first place.

I followed an iterative design process of strategizing, mechanism selection, testing, and refinement. By defining functional requirements and uncovering design issues early through prototypes and calculations, I could create easily machined and modifiable robots. With repeatability and consistency as key requirements for ensuring performance, my robots consistently scored over 100 points more than opponents. This systematic design decisions helped maximize scoring potential.