next stop: world championships
For Team 30110 Coyote, this season of the FIRST Tech Challenge has been a wild ride. What started as five students in a garage with zero experience grew into a team heading to the World Championship in Houston, Texas.
After months of late nights, trial-and-error, and 75-hour work weeks, we officially secured our spot. This accomplishment means the world to us because of the unique challenges we had to overcome.
Starting from Scratch: The Rookie Garage Team 🛠️
We aren't your typical veteran team. We are a rookie team, and for 4 out of 5 of us, this was our first time ever touching a robot.
Unlike many top-tier teams, we faced two major hurdles:
No Mentors or Coaches: We didn't have professional engineers to tell us how to design a drivetrain or write a PID loop. Everything; from mechanical design to complex software, was completely self-taught.
The Garage Grind: Without a dedicated school space to work on the robot, we worked out of a garage. We met 3–5 times a week for 4 hours at a time. Every week, our team put in a combined 75 hours of work.
Our team is built on two core values: Dedication and Consistency. When something failed; and it failed a lot, we didn't have a coach to fix it. We just tried again until it worked.
Engineering a World-Class Robot 🧠
To compete with the best in SoCal, we knew our robot couldn't just "work", it had to be elite. We focused on high-level automation and precision:
Precision Localization: We integrated two odometry pods with a GoBilda Pinpoint IMU. This allows the robot to know its exact field position in real-time.
Dual-Layer Targeting: Since odometry can drift, we added a Limelight 3A camera. Our turret uses the odometry to get close to the target and then uses the camera for precision correction to lock onto AprilTags.
Shooting While Moving: This is our secret weapon. Our code calculates the robot's velocity and adds a lead offset. This means even if we are being pushed by another robot or sliding across the field, our artifacts still land accurately in the goal.
18-Artifact Autonomous: Using PedroPathing, our robot can start scoring from the very first second of the match. We can consistently score up to 18 artifacts in Auto from both the far and close zones.
PIDF Velocity Control: We used encoder-based PIDF control for our shooter, ensuring our flywheel RPM stays steady even as our battery voltage drops late in the match.
The Road Through SoCal: 8th Place in the Region 🏆
The Southern California Championship is one of the toughest in the world. 42 teams competed, but only 8 spots were available to advance to the FTC World Championship.
We placed 6th before the award ceremony; which was very risky, since other teams could overthrow us on the leaderboard by gaining awards. We had 2 options—get any award (to get ranking points), or hope and pray that we wouldn’t get pushed down by other teams. Awards were being given left and right, as our chances were slowly decreasing.
The last awards had been given out, and at that moment, we realized that we couldn’t get our hands on an award. That meant our only path to Texas was through luck and hope that others wouldn’t push us down.
The entire day, we stayed focused, played strategically, and ranked high enough to have a chance. At last, when the final advancement list was called, we had secured the 8th and final spot to advance to the World Championship. It was an emotional moment for all of us, the rookie team had actually made it to Worlds.
Our team taking a post-competition group photo with our alliance—359 WEBB.exe.
Playoffs and The Power of the Alliance ⚔️
The playoff bracket was a rollercoaster. We were honored to be selected by an Alliance Captain and joined forces with an incredible partner (who is also going to Worlds with us!).
Our playoff run was intense:
We won our opening matches with high scores.
We dropped a match and were sent to the lower bracket of the double-elimination playoffs.
We fought our way back, winning key elimination matches.
Eventually, we were knocked out by the same strong team that beat us earlier.
Even though we didn't make the final match, we proved that a self-taught rookie team could stand toe-to-toe with the best veterans in the region.
Looking Ahead: Texas Bound! 🤠
We are now headed to Houston to represent the SoCal region on the world stage. Our goal is simple:
Play our best matches yet.
Make it to the playoffs.
This season was a long journey for all of us; it taught us that collaboration makes the impossible possible, and that every failure is just a lesson in disguise.
Team 30110 Coyote — See you at Worlds.
“Without commitment, you’ll never start, but more importantly, without consistency, you’ll never finish.”
