By Mia Hanuska and Kathryn Tanaka
February marks weeks four through seven of build season for Arrowbotics. With ski week right in the middle of the season, the team will pack all their important parts, tools, and machines up and transport them to a member’s house to work for the week. Any extra time to build the bot is worth it for the hassle of moving the parts! If you missed January’s recap with an explanation of the 2026 REBUILT challenge, you can find it here.
February 02–06
This week began mechanical madness! The mechanical and manufacturing divisions began working tirelessly to get the robot done for software.
- Mechanical finally finished the Kitbot and started cutting important pieces for assembling the subsystems
- The machining leads labored over the CNC and 3D printer, starting cutting plates for the shooter
- Electrical finalized the placement of their components, allowing the team to order the belly pan from SendCutSend!
February 09-13
With two minimum days, the team simply finished up preparing for mechanical’s assembly days and getting merch ready for production.
- Mechanical assembled all the rollers and prepared intake for mounting
- Machining finished CNCing all the plates and even began on backup parts for when things inevitably get broken at comp!
- Media finished two beautiful merch designs, which we immediately sent to our incredible sponsors FRCTees to manufacture. Check them out at frctees.com.
February 23–27
As we approach the end of February, crunch time begins for the team! Every meeting brings the robot closer and closer to completion.
- Mechanical team assembled the climb subsystem with the help of the excellent President and Vice President
- Electrical laid down all the wires and necessary devices on the drive train.
- Software began working with the Kitbot, the code for which will hopefully be applicable to the actual on-season robot
- It only took both Mia and Kathryn laying on the ground to mount the shooter onto the chassis, but with a little bit elbow grease, the screws finally went in and the bot started looking like a real robot.
