Kryptik 2024

I joined the Vanier Robotics team on my first day of school and it's been a crazy ride! This is a full log of the first year of my participation on the team and how we participated at CRC (Canadian Robotics Competition).

Before this I didn't have much experience with robotics. I played with some Lego Mindstorms in high school but that's about it. I also knew some C# from developing Video Games but other than that, I was a complete noob.

What followed was an awesome adventure that definitely changed the course of my life. I made so many new friends and learned so much.

I was part of every sub-team which meant I got to experience many different parts of the robotics competition.

Robot

I spent most of my time working on the robot. I learned the basics of Arduino programming and working with T-Extrusions and assembling different parts together.

There were also 3D printers at school that you could use for free. I learned 3D modeling with Fusion 360 and how to operate a 3D printer. Very fun!!

In Kryptik 2024, the goal of the game was to pick up dodge balls and launch them in hoops to accumulate points.

We designed our robot to intake dodge balls from the front, store them along the conveyor belt, and then shoot them out using a double flywheel system.

There were many iterations along the way but the core idea was solid from the start.

The Tech Stack:

• Drivetrain: T-Extrusions & Mecanum wheels (for omnidirectional movement).
• Intake: Custom Omniwheel assembly with Vex chains.
• Brain: CrcDuino powered by a 12V Battery.

The CrcDuino is built on the same configuration as an Arduino Mega 2560 standard board. I eventually got my own Arduino Mega so I could build cool projects, without worrying about running out of pins:

And this is what our robot looked like once it was finished:

Website

I also helped design & code the website. This was my first time encountering React and to be honest I didn't understand much and I got completely demolished. But I tried. 😅

I was also one of the people writing the content for the website. Everything has to be in-theme (our theme was Monopoly that year), which makes it interesting to write.

We got 3rd place for the website design and 2nd place for the website content. The site even featured some crazy Three.js 3D models that stressed our laptops out.

Video

In CRC, you also need to create a 5min video relating to your "theme" (ours was Monopoly).

I started as an actor, but 2 days before the deadline, our editor bailed.

I had to step in and finish the entire video in 1 1/2 days. I grinded until midnight two days in a row.

We submitted the video at 11:50 PM—ten minutes before the deadline. It taught me that "done" is better than "perfect," and that you can always work harder than you think.

Competition

The competition was intense. We had games often and the robot kept breaking so we had to constantly fix it up. 💀

We were rushing between the kiosk and the playfield; it was crazy. I gave it my all and I'm proud of our team.

We also got some time to socialize with the other participants and check out all the kiosks, that was fun.

The Result

Although we placed 5th in the game category, our combined scores (Robot + Website + Video + Kiosk + Prog. Comp.) pushed us to the podium.

We won 2nd Place Overall in the entire competition.

The whole team was absolutely ecstatic. It's hard to describe in words but it was insane. It was an amazing feeling...

Recap

I also made a recap video of the entire year... It took me a solid 2 months to finish the editing process, but it captures the vibe perfectly.

Overall, it was an amazing year. I learned so many new skills like 3D printing, 3D modeling, some web development, and more importantly... I made a ton of new friends.

It's a year I'll never forget.