-I have learnt that FTC is not simply a competition, but rather a community of people, whom have come together in unity for a shared love for robotics, furthermore, it has allowed me as a person to gain a new understanding for what engineering really is-rather than just building robots, it is more planning and collaborative work in order to create something meaningful, which has led to me considering a career in aerospace engineering.
-Robotics is difficult yet rewarding, there are times where patience has run particularly thin with it either being caused by the mundanity of repetitive tasks or simply something doesn’t work for example the chains not having enough tension for them to be efficient for the wheels to work, however being able to push forth and find work arounds to this has allowed for our robot ‘terry’ to prosper, which has given me more gratification and satisfaction than had we given up on the robot.
Tips I would give to people starting robotics
-robotics takes time, be patient, because similarly to the saying ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’, neither will a robot being built.
-building a robot is a tedious process, there will be points where you will want to quit out of sheer frustration, but you must learn to ignore such feelings and just push through.
-Be sure of exactly what you want to create, to ensure better teamwork throughout the process of building a robot.