Robotics powers up for 2026
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Wilsobotics is back for the 2025-2026 season of FTC after our extremely successful rookie season, when we placed as the Runner-Up alliance leader in the National Competition in July. This season has posed challenges on all fronts, from design to programming, but naturally, every challenge has presented an opportunity to learn, which we have taken fully on board.
The start of the season did not allow us to ease gently back into robotics after our break as we were tasked with training the school's new second FTC team, Wilsonic Boom, whilst engineering our own new robot. Thankfully, the CAD team got stuck in immediately, and the Engineering team actioned their design, utilising new gear kindly providing by our sponsors, such as a CNC machine from TwoTrees and custom plates from Komacut. Another obstacle to overcome was the turret system, the main feature of our robot, and indeed, the season's unique minigame, needing us to shoot coloured balls into baskets. However, this was again masterfully designed and implemented, and its potential has been enhanced thanks to clever programming allowing the robot to shoot while moving - a definite advantage on the field.
Wilsobotics has also stepped up outreach this year, primarily through meetings. We have organised many calls with various teams from around the world to discuss strategies and design methods, and are currently planning multiple initiatives, such as a robotics club for local schools, and an international collective for FTC teams to collaborate and assist each other in the various facets of the competition. While competing with other teams is part of FTC, sparking interest in robotics and other related STEM skills is vital to the competition's spirit, and we are up for the challenge.
Throughout this academic year, Wilsonic Boom has also been working to engineer a robot to compete in the FTC competition - but unlike Wilsobotics, entirely from the ground up with no prior experience! Our robot plays in matches where it has to perform multiple tasks to score points, including shooting artefacts into goals elevated above the floor.
In December last year, we participated in the Scrimmages, a non-competitive setting in which we tested our robot on a full-size competition field, allowing us to meet other teams and exchange ideas. This is a core idea of FTC - inspiring others and embracing the principle of "gracious professionalism", something we were all already familiar with at Wilson's. However, it was also an opportunity to find any problems and improve our robots, which was crucial at this stage for preparing for the actual competition. For example, WilSonic Boom realised that their intake system could not perform at a high enough speed, and that our transfer system was too slow. Using these lessons, both teams are now assembling version 2 of their robots and preparing for the regional qualifiers on 24 March.
As both teams are student-run, they rely on the support of the school community and backing from our generous sponsors. Check out our websites - here and here - to keep up with our endeavours as we approach the final stages of the season!
Article written by Adam (Year 11), Sudersen (Year 11) and Vastal (Year 10)
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