← Back to updates

2025/2026 Decode Season Recap

Soumik Mahek Nethraa Jai Olivia Anagha Joseph Keaton Mark Vyom Snigdha
End of Season Journal

From our first meets through the Illinois Championship, this season was about building consistency, improving match by match, and growing stronger as a team in both competition and outreach.

Fast but not Furious team at the end of the 2025 season
Average Score --
Best Score --
Win Rate --
Average Auto --
Peoria Record --
State Record --

Score Progression Across the Season

Meet RampRover

RampRover - Team 21592's competition robot

Our competition robot, RampRover, features a two-stage active intake, a gravity-fed tunnel transfer, and our custom CAMJET launch system (CAM-Activated Motion & Joint Ejection Tool). The intake uses two stages of gecko wheels driven by a 1150 rpm high-torque motor through a multi-gear system, designed to accept only one artifact at a time while maintaining compression throughout the flow.

The transfer mimics a slide, using gravity to guide artifacts toward the launcher. Iterating on 3D-printed inlets and adding a hood cover solved early stacking issues, and a horizontal transfer servo with surgical tubing gives artifacts the final push to the CAMJET.

The CAMJET itself can fire 3 artifacts in 3 seconds. It uses a balanced CAM lobe, tuned by optimizing mass distribution and infill proportions, paired with a rubber-band tensioner to prevent premature ejection. Getting here meant going through beauty-blender and 3D-printed shovel prototypes first, each teaching us something about consistency and rapid-fire performance.

Physics-Driven Software

Math and physics guided both our robot design and our software stack. Early launch-path inconsistencies were traced to the Magnus Effect, where a spinning artifact drifts due to pressure differences described by Bernoulli's Principle. We modeled it with the scalar lift equation to set an initial test angle.

Instead of fixed ticks-per-second values, our software now auto-tunes velocity and power. Using our Limelight vision system, we compute distance from AprilTags and derive a target TPS through projectile-motion equations. Combined with automatic alignment (averaging min/max angle offsets at each distance), our driver-assist features achieved 91% scoring accuracy. We verified all calculations with our high-school AP Physics teacher.

For autonomous, we developed action classes for motor control, launching sequences, and servo management. A distance-sensor-triggered action class automatically activates intake and the horizontal transfer servo once the first artifact launches, cutting cycle time. We built 7 autonomous paths for maximum alliance flexibility.

Robot 2: Our Advanced Learning Platform

Robot 2 - experimental laser-cut plexiglass chassis with turret

Alongside RampRover, we built a second robot as an advanced learning platform. Robot 2 moved away from standard parts entirely, experimenting with a belt-driven, laser-cut plexiglass chassis and a fully integrated turret system, allowing it to shoot from any position and angle on the field.

While RampRover was ultimately chosen for competition due to its consistency and speed, Robot 2 expanded our CAD skills across the entire team and let us explore ideas we brought back to improve RampRover's design.

Competition Journey

Team 21592 competing at a meet

This season was about steady improvement rather than one big breakthrough. From our early Peoria meets to the Illinois Championship, we focused on building a robot that performed reliably and refining our match strategy event by event.

By Meet 4, the progress was clear. We played strong qualification matches, improved our standing, and were selected into alliance play. It was a turning point that showed how far we had come in both performance and confidence.

At the Illinois Championship, we competed at a higher level and presented the full scope of our work, from design iteration and software to outreach and team culture. Just reaching State was meaningful, but being able to represent our season's growth on that stage made it even more rewarding.

Awards & Recognition

Team receiving an award at competition

We were honored to earn recognition that reflected both the technical and team-building sides of our work:

These awards validated our engineering process, our documentation through portfolio and judging presentations, and the collaborative culture we built across programming, mechanical, CAD, and communications.

Community & Outreach

Our biggest outreach initiative was Bunny Bot, a collaboration with the Society of Women Engineers to design and build a robot that inspires youth interest in STEM. Bunny Bot debuted at Ignite Peoria to over 4,000 attendees, traveled to Peoria High School's blood drive, and is now available to check out from the Caterpillar Library, creating a sustainable avenue for other organizations to contribute to our mission.

Beyond Bunny Bot, we stayed busy with community engagements throughout the year:

How We Work

This season we expanded our team with 3 rookie members, a new mentor, and a new head coach. To keep everyone aligned, we followed the Agile development philosophy, using Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and meeting minutes to track tasks, deadlines, and responsibilities.

World Café brainstorming session

We also introduced World Café, a structured brainstorming process where subgroups rotate through different robot subsystems (intake, launch, transfer, and more), building on each other's ideas. This increased engagement from every team member and generated more ideas early in the season, making it an integral part of our design process.

Season-long training sessions gave all members exposure to CAD, programming, and mechanical work. With the help of our design and programming mentors, we ran both virtual and in-person workshops so everyone could contribute meaningfully regardless of experience level.

Looking Ahead

More than anything, this season gave us a foundation to build on. We leave it with stronger experience, clearer direction, and a better sense of who we are as a team. The lessons from every meet, outreach event, and late-night build session add up, and we are carrying all of it into next season.

We aim to keep growing: deeper technical skills, broader community impact, and an even stronger team culture. We're proud of what we accomplished, and excited for what comes next.