Wicked Smart; Quacking Up Innovation
Our Team
We’re a girl-powered FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) team from Charlottesville, Virginia, and this is our second year in the program! Our motto is “Wicked Smart; Quacking Up Innovation,” and we’re all about inspiring and empowering people in our community through spreading STEM and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). We love hosting workshops, mentoring other teams, and working with local organizations to make STEM fun and easy to learn. Our goal is to get more girls into robotics and share how awesome innovation and teamwork can be.
Meet Our Robot
Chassis: Compact 13.5” x 15” for agility; limited space for mechanisms.
Drivetrain: Miter gearboxes optimized weight but reduced intake space.
Intake: 3D-printed claw on a rotating arm with Viper slide and scissor lift.
Motor: A high-torque motor improved the slide control.
Challenge: Steel slides added weight, limiting ascent.
Last Year
Last year, we won the Control Award by enhancing our robot with innovative color sensors and indicator lights. We added a color sensor to our claw, programmed to detect red, blue, and yellow blocks, ensuring it only closes on the correct colors. This feature enables effective collaboration with our alliance partners, whether scoring samples in the high basket or specimens in high chambers. After expert feedback at the Collaborative Robotics Lab at UVa, we shifted to a pose detection approach to determine servo commands based on block orientation.
Contact Us
Interested in learning more about our team? Want to become a sponsor? Have questions about FIRST Tech Challenge?
Email: ftcteam26502@example.com
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