Mark Leong Photography

Annika, a member of the Space Cookies 1868 Robotics Team, sits among the team’s past robots, preparing parts for the new build. Unlike most FRC teams, Space Cookies is not high school based — it is a Girl Scout troop that meets at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Mountain View.

FIRST Robotic Competition has become an international institution. Each team is numbered — the numbers are now approaching 10,000. In the US, some 70,000 students are involved. Besides building robots, the program also includes creating individual team branding, from Instagram and Linkedin accounts to buttons and hoodies.

Members of Berkeley High School Team 5419 Berkelium do some tests on an early prototype made during the first build week out of wood and parts from previous year’s robots.

Member of East Palo Alto Churrobots Team 9048 cleans out part of a swerve drive mechanism for assembly

Close up of the cone pickup and placement arm of the Mitty High School Robotics Team 1251 TKO robot.

Members of the Mountain View High School 971 Spartan Robotics Team prototype a suction subsystem for picking up cones. This was ultimately passed over for a silicone roller based method. Failure and re-grouping as a team is a huge part of competitive robotics.

A previous version of the Mountain View High School 971 Spartan Robotics Team control board and custom 3D printed pistol-grip controller. Every year the competition has different game pieces, fields and objectives, so the functions change as well.

Members of the Mountain View High School 971 Spartan Robotics Team use a CNC router to machine complex parts out of aluminum. Fifteen years ago CNC routers were uncommon and prohibitively expensive. Now robotics high schoolers are getting hands-on professional skills with CNC (computer numerical control) combined with CAD/CAM (computer aided drafting and modeling)

Members of Berkeley High School Team 5419 Berkelium test a prototype for achieving one of this year’s game goals of placing traffic cones on vertical rods, using a roller launch mechanism to shoot them in the air.

Members of the Mountain View High School 971 Spartan Robotics Team work on the final build for their robot. Situated in the middle of Silicon Valley, with sponsors like Google, Intuitive Surgical and John Deere and local mentors deeply embedded in the mechatronics industry, Team 971 is known as an innovative tech powerhouse, with custom circuit boards and vision systems. Some of their code has been adapted back into the industry for professional use. Other feature - carbon fiber arm with a wrist motion, custom gear box.

The elementary school level feeder into the FIRST Robotics world is the FIRST Lego League, whose shoebox-sized robots compete on table top fields as opposed to FRC’s washing machine-sized robots competing on basketball courts.

Members of the Mountain View High School 971 Spartan Robotics Team work on the final build for their robot. Situated in the middle of Silicon Valley, with sponsors like Google, Intuitive Surgical and John Deere and local mentors deeply embedded in the mechatronics industry, Team 971 is known as an innovative tech powerhouse, with custom circuit boards and vision systems. Some of their code has been adapted back into the industry for professional use.

2023 FRC Sacramento Regional

Members of SF Ruth Asawa School of the Arts Team 5700 cheer for their alliance at the SF Regional

The finals of the Silicon Valley Regional

Members of the Mount Diablo Unified School District Robotics Team 7137 Project 212 wear the team’s name and number on their faces

Saratoga High School Robotics Team 649 MSET Fish practice with members of their alliance to balance their robots on a platform for endgame bonus points.

Members of the Khan Lab School Team 6962 RobotX have lunch in the hallway of St Ignatius College Preparatory, who hosted the SF Regional. FRC tournaments are big lively festivals that combine elements of science fairs, hockey matches, stock car racing and game theory.

Team 299 ValkyrieRobotics tend to their robot in the pits at the 2023 FRC SF Regional

Driver and coders for Berkeley High School Team 5419 Berkelium in the playoff elimination rounds at the Sacramento Regionals. Signing up for the tournament at the last second, they actually qualified for the World Championships with their performance. Earlier that week, Theo (at laptop) found he had been accepted to MIT. Students say that 1/3 of those accepted to MIT this year listed FRC among their activities.

Mountain View High School Team 971 Spartan Robotics has over 80 members. This is the moment when won the SF Regional, thereby qualifying for the World Championships by