FIRST Robotics reveals a new game every year and gives teams six weeks to build their 120+ pound robot. The whole team gathers to spend kickoff analyzing the game and planning a schedule for robot design and creation.

The engineering team narrows down mechanism options by creating prototypes; once an idea is finalized, the team designs the subsystem in Autodesk Inventor and machines parts in Peddie’s Digital Fabrication Laboratory. Finally, the ideas are tested and the subsystems are refined.

Programmers write code in Java to operate the robot. They dedicate much of their time to creating splines for the 15-second autonomous mode in matches.

Robot names are in alphabetical order. They compose an aerial theme in a nod to the Peddie School’s mascot, the Falcon.