TakTik 2025

After a successful first year, we're back.

This time, I was elected to be the team captain and I had a ton of new ideas I wanted to implement.

This is the full log of my second and last year as a participant at CRC (Canadian Robotics Competition).

It's been a challenging year but I learned more than I ever could have imagined. These lessons will be with me for the rest of my life.

🛠️ Getting ready

Before the semester even started, we were at work.

• Restructuring: We reorganized the sub-teams to fix the communication bottlenecks from the previous year.
• The Purge: We cleaned the robotics room, scrapping old junk to make space for new ideas.
• Funding: I prepared a sponsorship package to secure funding for our new plans...

Our theme for the year was Plants vs. Zombies which we need to incorporate in our video, kiosk, website, etc.

Let's go!

🗺️ Orientation Day

On orientation day, we did a quick presentation about the team and already recruited some new members. Nice.

We also put up some posters around the school to encourage people around the school to join us.

🚀 Kickoff

"Kickoff" is the day CRC releases all the rules regarding the game. In TakTik 2025, the game involves manipulating donut-shaped pieces (Game Pieces, or GPs).

This is what they look like; each one is 6 inches in diameter:

We need to place them on various "posts" scattered across the playfield to capture zones. There are 9 zones in total, in the shape of a 3x3 grid.

The center zone cannot be reached by robots, so GPs must be launced on the small center post.

🤖 The Robot:

STEP 1: Dissassembling last year's robot:

Now that the old robot has been disassembled, it's time to build the new one.

Our robot is a Mecanum-based machine that has two main systems:

• A claw system made for picking up game pieces (GPs) & stacking them on the posts
• A flywheel system used to store & shoot GPs onto the center post.

🚗 Drivetrain

Our first step was building a drivetrain. We opted for a drivetrain made of T-slotters, equipped with 4 Mecanum wheels. Each motor was attached with custom 3D-printed motor mounts, which were re-modeled multiple times.

Each motor is quite powerful:

And here's the final drivetrain:

✋ Claw System

Of course, we needed a way to grab the GPs. It took many iterations, but we eventually devised a complex claw system, equipped with 2 servos.

This allows the claw to both rotate on itself and open/close.

Using this design, the claw can grab up to 3 GPs at a time. The claw was re-printed 6 times (ouch), but the final version was reliable.

Conveyor Belt

Next, we needed a system that could feed GPs to a launching mechanism (which was built later). We opted for a conveyor belt system that will feed the GPs into a small storage area.

🛞 Flywheel

We need a launching system to throw the GPs onto the center post.

At first, we considered using two flywheels to launch the GPs, but we realized that this would be too bulky and wouldn't "spin" the GPs in the air.

We decided to go with a different and more reliable design: one flywheel with a curved ramp.

Finally, it was time for the real battle – cable management. It looked like a spaghetti mess, but after a few days of work (and lots of 3D-printed wire holders), we managed to bring the robot to life. Each motor, servo, and sensor was ready for action!

❄️ Winter Break

The winter break gave us two full weeks of uninterrupted work. We spent countless hours perfecting the drivetrain, the claw system, and the shooting system.

By the end we were getting a lot more reliable.

After many months of brainstorming, prototyping, testing, and (probably too many) snacks, our robot was ready.

And it's pretty fast. 😅

⚔️ The Competition

Since I was the team captain this year, I had to take care of all the team logistics which was a little nerve-wracking.

First, I got a ride to the truck rental place. We picked up the banner for the kiosk at the same time. Then, we came back to school and we all loaded the truck together which took an hour or so.

Next, we drove to the competition location, unpacked the whole truck, and one team stayed to build the kiosk while I went back to return the truck. It was quite chaotic.

Games

For the first 3 days, we were untouchable. We were far ahead in the rankings for the entire competition. Our robot was working flawlessly, it literally never broke down, not even once.

Our shooting was not very accurate at first but got better over the next few days. It felt awesome.

The Fall

Unfortunately, all great things must come to an end... In the semi-finals, we kinda got cooked and we didn't make it to finals by 50 points (very small).

However, our combined scores across all categories (Robot, Kiosk, Video, Website) secured us a podium finish.

We finished third place overall.

I really wanted to hit first place, but what's done is done.

We also got first place for sportsmanship. 💪

📜 Aftermath & Lessons

This was my first leadership experience with a large group of people. I learned so much.

I learned that building robots is easy; managing people is hard. I made mistakes. There was tension. But those failures taught me more about leadership & team alignment than any success could have.

I wrote a full breakdown of these lessons here:

Vanier Robotics: Lessons & Failures in First-Time Leadership

However, I still had fun and this experience definitely shaped me in so many ways.

Thanks for reading 🫡