Team SPACE*
10918
Self Programmed Android Controlled Entity*
Who are we, and what is FTC?
We are team SPACE. A team best described with the word “fun”
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is a global robotics competition for students aged 12–18. Teams work together to design, build, and program robots, then compete in alliance-based matches. With help from mentors, students build STEM skills, learn teamwork and “Gracious Professionalism,” and go for awards. Every September, a brand-new challenge is revealed to kick off the season.
Partners
The FTC Benelux Championships are a key moment in the season, bringing together the strongest teams from the region. Qualifying for this event is always a special step and a chance to compete at a higher level.
For Team SPACE, the Benelux Championships feel familiar in the best way. It’s an opportunity to keep learning, enjoy the competition, and experience the FTC spirit together — with plenty of fun along the way.–DAYS–HOURS–MINUTES–SECONDS
Programming
Programming being one of the most important parts of the robot it’s important that we get it right.
Blocks to java
At the start of the season many of the coders were still new to java, so we used blocks.
This was not ideal, so we slowly moved to Java when working with FTCsim, slowly getting
better and better at Java, now we only use Java.
Autonomous
We first used FTCsim to learn the basics of autonomous programming and safely test our ideas. When we switched to the real robot, we found it behaved differently than the simulation, so we had to adjust and improve our code.We developed the autonomous program step by step by planning tasks, coding and testing them individually, and then testing the full program on the robot. Additional adjustments were needed to improve accuracy and performance, especially because our mecanum drive requires precise control in all directions.
Engineering
Engeneering is arguably the most important part of a robot, you cant compete let alone win without a robot, thats what te engeneers are here for
AFTER THE QUALIFIER
During the qualifier, we decided that our robot needed desperate improvement. It wasn’t consistent in shooting, and the balls often got stuck in our shooter, causing it to stop working for the rest of the match. So, we decided to start completely from scratch.
We removed the frame of the starterbot so that we only had our drivetrain. Then, we started to think of designs and looked at other robots for inspiration.
DURING THE WINTERBREAK
During our winter break, we held a large brainstorming session at Breda Robotics (one of our sponsors) to decide on the design principles for our new robot.
We eventually settled on a ground intake and a shooter with a flywheel. Our transfer system included several DUO Flap Wheels from REV.
Outreach
Outreach is als verry important, you can have the best pragrammers and the best engeneers, but when none knows about the existance of your team it all doesnt realy matter
FIRST_around_the_world
his season we wanted to either continue the old #First_as_you_are social media
campaign or start a new one. We decided to start a new one called First_around_the_world. The goal of this campaign was to unite teams from all
over the world because FIRST is bigger than global conflict. We asked teams to send
stories about their teams and if they wanted, a teamphoto. We reached out to
around 100 teams from countries like France, Brazil, Romania, Kazachstan and more.
Social media/Instagram
This season we started posting more on our social media, we didn’t really do this
before. After posting a bit we reached 1000 followers. This is also our primary way of
contacting other teams. We post updates of our team and sometimes skits.
Our goal is to gain more followers in the future.