FRC Team 2202, BEAST Robotics, was busy since last season, impacting our community! We hosted our 11th annual summer STEM Camp for 3rd-5th grade students, sparking their interest in FIRST.
We participated in Brookfield’s 4th of July parade, where the crowd continued to be in awe of our float, complete with a shooting and scoring robot! We hosted a “Unified Robotics” event with Best Buddies, an organization supporting those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In the fall, our pre-season was full of rookie training and team-building events like our annual Rube Goldberg competition. We continued to promote good mental health with a NAMI presentation, and we raised funds for suicide prevention while we walked together in the annual Out of the Darkness Walk on Milwaukee’s lakefront. We built adaptive toys for developmentally delayed children in the Milwaukee area at the Marquette University Toy Build event. We presented an Onshape CAD session at the FIRST Wisconsin FRC Training Day at WCTC. We assisted the other levels of FIRST in our community by hosting the FLL Challenge Rookie Quick Start and the Elmbrook FLL Explore Festival. We also represented FRC at the Battle of Brookfield FTC Qualifier. We hosted our sponsor, MSOE. We toured our sponsor, Komatsu. We participated in a robot demonstration at the Rockwell Automation Fair in Chicago, as they are also one of our sponsors. We strengthened our relationship with the Elmbrook Rotary by sharing a presentation about FIRST at their meeting, and we later invited them to our robotics lab to see us in action. As always, you can see we are “More than robots!”
And after that, it was time to kick-off our 2026 build activities. Our BEAST Robotics team came together on Saturday, January 10, to watch the official announcement of this season’s competition.
REBUILT presented by Haas, is going to be an exciting challenge. The theme is every artifact we uncover holds a story. Each tool, each innovation, each work of art connects us to the people and ideas that came before us. Using STEM skills and teamwork, we can dig deeper into discoveries than ever before.
In the 2026 REBUILT challenge, robots collect and score fuel (balls) into their hub, cross obstacles, and climb the tower before time runs out. During the first 20 seconds of the match, robots are autonomous, and they may collect and score fuel and climb the tower. Tele-operated play occurs during the remaining 2 minutes and 20 seconds of the match. Red and blue alliance hubs alternate between active and inactive. As time runs out, both hubs become active. While a hub is active, robots may score fuel. While the hub is inactive, robots may collect fuel or employ defensive strategies. Lastly, robots may climb the tower again during the end game. The alliance that earns the most points wins the match!
To better understand how the competition is going to look, watch this short video from FIRST explaining the challenge: https://youtu.be/_fybREErgyM
Our team has been busy studying the game manual and creating our initial design. We divided the team into small groups to tackle key aspects of the game.
We held a “game simulation” to give teammates a better understanding of the game, rules, field and strategy. Fun was had by all, because who doesn’t like to pretend to be a robot?!?
Then, we built single and multishooter prototypes for our robot.
After much testing, we are excited to move forward with a double shooter design, and we recently assembled our fabricated parts.
Our competition chassis is built and wired, and the intake has been mounted.
With five weeks behind us, we only have one more week until we need a competition-ready robot, so we’ve officially kicked into high gear! Our first opportunity to show off our robot is at the Sussex Scrimmage on Feb 22 at Hamilton High School! This event is free and open to the public. Follow our day in person or from afar on Facebook, X, or Instagram!
Finally, this year, we are hosting the FIRST WI FRC State Championship, and taking the opportunity to expand exposure to FRC to the state FLL population through the FIRST Annual Udder Chaos Invitational. Hosting the two competitions together exposes FLL students to the excitement of FRC, simultaneously celebrating STEM excellence across all ages while providing an active pipeline.
Let’s have a great season!
