High School FRC team wins Excellence in Engineering Award

Team includes two Stillman Valley High School siblings

    This robotics team doesn’t know when to stop! They recently attended the Northern Lights Regional competition in Duluth, MN, where they were awarded the Excellence in Engineering award. This award celebrates the team that best demonstrates a professional approach to the design process. Their robot, affectionately named Lucky, was effectively designed to perform tasks on the field during matches at the competition. Connor O’Sullivan, when talking about what the judges based their nomination on, said that they were most impressed by “how professionally the robot was manufactured and designed, as well as how well the design was thought out.” Additionally, when asked what his favorite design attribute is, Conner said, “The drive train is very fast and efficient and the shooter mechanism is efficient and consistent.”

    FRC teams are given six weeks to design and build a robot capable of completing the current year’s game requirements. The team worked hard designing their award-winning robot from the Global Kickoff in January to the first week of competitions in late February. Students brainstorm robot design possibilities, mock it up in CAD (Computer Aided Design), machine custom parts, create an electrical system, put all of the bits and pieces together into a full-grown robot, and program it to do what it is designed to do, all in six weeks time. Conner said, “We used OnShape, which is a cloud-based CAD program… on which we spend hundreds of hours designing the robot, troubleshooting, and prototyping.” Once the robot is operational, students continue to refine their design and programming through testing and in real-time at competitions.

    Rockford Robotics is a small community team with just seven students from several area high schools. Kai Holdmann says that he’s looking forward to “testing out all of the new modifications and competing at a higher level.” The team continues innovating and developing their design and will compete next at the Central Illinois Regional at Bradley University in Peoria.

    Stillman Valley High School students – and siblings – Annie and Connor O’Sullivan are part of the award winning robotics team. Annie and Connor are both in their third years on the Rockford Robotics team. Annie heads the Media and Marketing committee where she designs websites, publicity, presentations, and marketing. She also serves as the team’s resident photographer and does a good deal of writing. Connor is the team driver and a lead design engineer, technician and programmer.