By Mia Hanuska
Morpheus, named after the Greek god of shapeshifting, slides into the lineup as the club’s off-season robot for the 2023 challenge. Westmont’s very own Arrowbotics FRC Team 3482 went head-to-head with 46 other bots during the Capital City Competition from October 28-29. Built over the summer and with the help of new members, Morpheus is the team’s first-ever robot with swerve drive, an innovative and fast wheel system. I was able to interview some of the robot’s drivers, handlers, and builders: Yash Chitambar, Knox Friedman, Luke Hanuska, Jocelyn Hwang, and me (Mia Hanuska)!
What place did you score at the competition?
Knox: 11th in qualifying, 5th overall (out of 46).
What were the biggest challenges you faced while building?
Yash: Getting all the parts ready on time.
Jocelyn: Not enough Taylor Swift.
What was the best part of building this robot?
Yash: Swerve!
Knox: Bonding as a team.
Mia: Getting to see CAD come to life (especially since there were no problems with it…).
Luke: Working with people who share a passion for robotics.
What does it do?
Yash: The robot will intake cubes and cones, then score them on a grid.
Jocelyn: Bucket.
Did you run into any problems when competing?
Luke: We needed to tune code values more and practice driving.
Jocelyn: The entire intake broke. But, we managed to fix it by day 2 and place really well.
What are you looking forward to for the next FIRST challenge?
Knox: I’m looking forward to driving and manufacturing parts.
Yash & Luke: I’m excited to put our engineering skills to the test and compete for playoffs.
What was the best part of the competition?
Yash: Getting to see the growth of the team since last season.
Knox: Testing in the McDonald’s parking lot from 12-2am.
Mia: Working on and driving the robot on very little sleep and getting to experience Kathryn Tanaka’s first time at In-n-Out.
Luke: Driving the robot and being able to compete with top teams; getting to see our time and effort pay off.
Jocelyn: The In-n-Out hats!