Freight Frenzy

Freight Frenzy was the 2021–2022 FTC season — and my first competitive robotics season. The challenge involved collecting freight (game elements) from a warehouse and depositing it into a shared hub at different height levels. Joining as a freshman with no prior CAD or fabrication experience, I was thrown into the deep end: tasked with learning OnShape and producing a functional robot design in parallel with the rest of the team learning to build and program.

The Freight Frenzy robot was imperfect in the ways that first designs almost always are — mechanisms that worked in CAD required adjustment on the field, tolerances were sometimes off, and the design didn't always reflect the most efficient use of materials. But working through those problems in real time was a better education than any classroom equivalent. I learned to read assembly drawings, to work alongside fabricators, and to communicate clearly when a part wasn't going to work the way I had imagined it.

Despite being a rookie team, Bluebird Robotics FTC #20807 qualified for the regional competition — a result that felt unlikely at the start of the season. Competing against more experienced teams and holding our own was a defining experience that confirmed robotics was where I wanted to invest my energy in high school. The season set the foundation for every design I produced in the years that followed.