Hello there! We are the 2022-2023 Girls of Steel FTC teams, an all girls robotics team in the Pittsburgh area! (for more information, please see our last blog post if you haven’t already!)

There’s one more aspect of the FTC competition that we didn’t mention in our first post – autonomous! Autonomous is the first 30 seconds of a match, where the robot operates solely off previous programming (no controllers). There is a cone placed in front of the robot, and on each side of the cone, there is a different image. (see right image) Each of these images corresponds to a different spot on the field. The robot must be programmed to identify the image and move to the correct position. If the robot can do this, we gain points! We can also make a custom sleeve with images of our choice for the cone. We have created this with stars, hearts, and squares. 

We have continued with giving weekly updates at the Girls of Steel all hands meetings on Tuesdays. Below is our update using the theme “cookies” from November 29, 2022.

Our robot currently has a cascading lift with a gripper attached to pick up the cones. Since last post we have had to reconfigure the position of the cascading lift in order to ensure stability. During the scrimmage on December 3rd (more below),  we also had a chain system on our wheels for stability.

Another major update! We attended a scrimmage on December 3rd in order to prepare for our upcoming qualifying competition on January 14, 2023 at Pittsburgh’s North Catholic High School in Cranberry Township, PA. There were 19 teams in attendance and the scrimmage consisted of elements that would be at an actual competition such as judging and competing on official fields. The scrimmage was a great place for us to get introduced to Coopertition*. We competed as one team – FTC 9820 Girls of Steel Hypatia – and placed 12th of the 19 teams.

As a team we are always growing in friendship. “This team is like my family, we have grown to be more than friends,” said Sonia T. (one of our team members from 9820 Girls of Steel Hypatia). We’ve noticed that as we become closer with our teammates, the work gets easier because we are able to communicate better. Communication is key.

Now that we have two robots, when we compete on January 14th we will be in two teams.

Well that’s Girls of Steel FTC! We hope that you enjoyed this blog post and make sure to tune in next time for more! 

*Coopertition: a FIRST value which means displaying unqualified kindness and respect in the face of fierce competition.