In a robotics competition, it’s expected that you show up with some robots to compete with. We make a few of them each year. Meet the robots!
(Note: we disassemble our old robots for parts after each season – so you can’t meet Hook from 2022, even if you really wanted to.)
2025 Reefscape Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim is our robot for our 2025 Reefscape season. Featuring a claw actuated by motors and an all-new driving system, Tiny Tim is a testament to multipurpose design.
The arm works by having motors attached to the arm at each joint. These motors allow the arm to move. To hold the coral and algae on the claw, we have four rubber wheels that expand and contract to ensure that our coral holds on tight.
Our second arm on the robot allows us to dock to the deep cage. It does this by rotating a small arm that pivots the robot and lifts it off the ground. The biggest difference between the two arms is length and motor strength — this arm is a lot shorter than the other one but has a more powerful motor because it has to lift the whole robot a couple of inches off the ground.
The driving system is all new this year! Our swerve driving system, powered by motors from Neo, allows us to drive sideways, diagonally, and in more combinations of directions than ever before. Even though it was a pain to program this year, the amount of documentation we’ve been able to produce for future teams will ensure that everyone has an easier time transitioning to this new system.
Our name, Tiny Tim, was decided by polling our teammates approximately one hour before our first competition. It’s both based on the literary masterpiece known as “A Christmas Carol,” and our previous general captain — Timmy!
Our strategy for this year has pivoted — instead of attempting to score both algae and coral, we’re pivoting away from coral and focusing on algae. Other teams have systems that prioritize the mass transportation of coral, so focusing on algae would make us a better alliance partner than focusing on the multipurpose capabilities of our robot.
In terms of flair, we’ve got addressable RGB on our robot. This allows us to control each little LED light and control what color we want to display on each individual light — but you’ll need to wait to see what colors we roll down the floor with. Additionally, we’ve got brand-new stickers adorning our robot with our new logo from last year.
2024 – CRESCENDO™
SS Craig (she/her)
Craig is a robot we use to shoot our notes towards the speakers – and score some bonus points on the chain.
We built a better design for our hook this year. Instead of putting all our stress on the motor (which ultimately burned out), we’ve went with a system involving chains, a guiderail, and we’ve swapped out the hook for a metal-machined part.
The mechanism that shoots out the notes features two wheels and a little compartment that helps guide the notes towards the speaker at an angle. The notes are loaded from the top, they get sucked in by the wheels, and they get shot out by reversing said wheels. Enough said.
This robot features mecanum wheels that feature greater manoeuvrability than your average wheels you’d put on a car. Because of the slant on the wheels, we can move them left, right, rotate them in place, or pivot using a few different motor actions. This little page doesn’t really show the genius of these wheels – but the Wikipedia page does.
2023 – CHARGED UP™
Pat the Robot
Featuring cutting-edge googly-eye technology, some red padding flair, and a Lowes hat, Pat the Robot is probably ready for whatever’s going to hit it. (Maybe besides the pickup truck outside our lab. Our robots are resilient, but not THAT resilient.)
Unlike what’s found in Toy Story, this claw isn’t used for picking up aliens.
The green claw is powered by a pneumatic system – a closed system that uses air to rapidly close and open the claw. It’s used to pick up cones. There’s a motor that helps move the cone towards its target.