I’m mentoring a brand new, rookie team in this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition and last weekend was the first competition ever for Team 9577, Recoil Robotics. They performed wonderfully at the FIRST in Texas District Waco competition, ending up ranked 20th out of 40 at the end of qualification matches. They were first alternate after alliance selection (24 teams are chosen to compete in the double-elimination playoff section of the competition) and got to play one finals match when one of the original alliance robots broke down. To cap off a great weekend, they were given the Rookie Inspiration award. They now have two weeks to repair and refine the robot before the next competition in San Antonio.
You can find all my photos from the event at https://davewilson.smugmug.com/Robotics/FIT-District-Waco-2024.
For the technically inclined...