Berkley High School
Building Dreams and Engineering Futures
Our Robotics team has many seperate divisions. Students join these divisions based on there skills set and which they have interest in. Some of our students decide to join more than one. These subdivisions work together to run the team and complete the robot for the season. Each division has a different student leader to guide the other students in the division and assign tasks for them to complete.
The Marketing division may not seem very robotics like, but its one of the most important divisions! Its perfect for those who want marketing experience or want to join the team without doing anything involving programming, CAD, or mechanics. The Marketing division helps manage finances, fundraise, seek out sponsors, and work on the Chairman's Award. The Chairman's award is a very important project consisting of a paper, a presentation about the team in costume suiting the FIRST robotics theme for the year, and a video. A panel of judges then critiques their work along with a few other dozen team's work and the best one gets the Chairman's award. As a plus, you get a free ticket to the states or worlds tournament if you win!
Outreach is about spreading the word of FIRST robotics and Gracious Professionalism. They handle our social media, website, promotion of the team in our schools and community, and more!
Mechanics
Mechanics handles the overall assembly and frame of the robot. From drilling holes to milling. This division puts together the base of our robots. They take the electrical board and other pieces that the CAD division designed and the machinists made and put it all together to create the final product. The students in the Mechanics division must have knowledge of every aspect of the robot. These people usually become the pit crew at competitions to fix the robot after matches.
CAD
This division works with 3D design/blue prints. They use a software called Solidworks to design pieces for the robot. This allows the mechanics and machinists to be precise what with their building. They also work with 3D printers and with router tables. Anyone who needs a blueprint or a CAD model will come to this division for help.
Machining
The Machining division does all of the cutting and drilling to make pieces for our robot. They use machines like the mill, lathe, drill press, sander, and more. The machining division must be able to read blueprints made by the CAD division and make those specially designed parts for the robot. Machining a part can be very time consuming and dangerous so two mentors must be present in the build room when machining is happening.
Programming
This division is responsible for programming the robot's movements, the driver's controls, vision tracking, cameras, the autonomous phase of each robotics competition, and more. They program in Java in a program called Eclipse. They also use Python for programming, the occasional Raspberry Pi, and Arduinos. This can be the most difficult division due to having to deal with the constant problems programmers encounter. To join this division it is highly recommended that you know some Java or take the programming class at the high school.
Media/Marketing
Electrical
The electrical and pneumatics division is centered around wiring the robot and installing the pneumatics. They design an unique electrical board with the CAD team every year to efficiently fit in each robot. They learn about wiring, control boards, and pneumatics. Pneumatics are used in air pistons, gear shifting, and more!
Divisions
