The John Adams Robotics team has been working hard the last couple of months, building and coding what will hopefully be a fully functional robot for the upcoming competition on Feb. 28, 2025. Although it seems pretty cut and dry, you build a base and you code the insides, it is a lot more complicated than one would imagine. There are five sections of robotics that all work together to make the robot work: marketing, design, code, electronics and build. 

First off is the marketing group, made to try to create ways to earn money for the club, as robot parts are not very cheap and they add up pretty quickly. They also are supposed to make flyers, posters, ads and other things as such to encourage people to join! 

Design stays true to its name, as it is a group that is dedicated to figuring out what the robot is going to look like. They come up with what the robot is going to have, for example, this year the robot is hopefully going to have an elevator, designed by this wonderful team. Not only that, the designers also guide groups like build and electronics on where they think things would be most beneficial. 

Code does all of the coding for the robot,writing scripts that tell the robot what to do and where to go, as well as directing where the power should go and when. Code is quite difficult, as without knowing what you are doing it is nearly impossible to make a code without error. Fortunately for the Adams team, there are multiple people there who know exactly how to code so even if the team is struggling, they can always get help.

Electronics does all of the physical stuff for well, the electronics. Mainly, they work with wiring things such as the fuse box, the spark maxes, the robo rio and the light bulb, which funnily enough was one of the hardest things to wire so far this year. 

Last but not least, the build team works with the “skeleton” of the robot. They built the metal base and the bumper that prevents the robot from getting injured as much as it can. 

Although all of them seem so different, they all work together like a hive mind, and just because a student joins one specific group, that doesn’t mean they can’t jump around and help wherever help is needed. Coming from a member of the John Adams Robotics Team, you should definitely join!