Borealis: FIRST Robotics '24

A competition robot for CENTERSTAGE, built around a high-speed custom surgical tubing intake and linear rail system that reliably manipulated and stacked game pieces.

The problem

CENTERSTAGE required robots to intake hexagonal game pieces, reliably orient and stack them onto a vertical scoring board, then lift themselves off the ground while remaining short enough to drive underneath field structures. The challenge was maximizing cycle speed without introducing transfer jams or sacrificing reliability.

What I built

I independently designed the robot's complete mechanical system, iterating through multiple generations of the intake, drivetrain, lift, and scoring mechanisms. The final design featured a surgical tubing intake with an offset funneling system that eliminated jams, a passive one-way gate dumper for consistent scoring, and a pocketed linear rail assembly that doubled as the climbing mechanism. Throughout development, I used finite element analysis, torque calculations, and rapid prototyping to optimize weight, packaging, and reliability.

Outcome

The finished robot consistently completed 7-second two-pixel scoring cycles and won multiple awards, including the Design Award and Winning Alliance. More importantly, it taught me how to architect complete robotic systems, balance competing mechanical constraints, and iterate quickly from rough prototypes into robust competition hardware.