Every new FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) season brings excitement, uncertainty, and a fresh challenge. This year, before the official game reveal for the BioBuzz season, our team, Byte Bandits, took part in an exciting preseason challenge that tested not just our engineering skills, but also our teamwork, preparation, and ability to adapt under pressure.
The challenge was simple on paper: build a complete FTC robot in just six hours.
While six hours may sound like a lot of time, experienced FTC teams know that designing, building, wiring, programming, and troubleshooting a robot can take weeks. To prepare, our team spent several weeks leading up to the event refining our building process. We practiced rapid assembly techniques, improved how we organized our parts, and worked on reducing the time it took to build common mechanisms.
One of our biggest areas of focus was designing and testing our own intake and transfer system. We experimented with different concepts, making improvements after each test so we could arrive at the challenge with a design that was efficient, reliable, and easy to assemble under time pressure.
Tearing It All Apart
Preparation for the challenge included one step that felt especially painful.
Before the event, we had to completely disassemble our robot.
Every subsystem, bracket, motor, wheel, and screw had to be taken apart and sorted into organized groups. While it was tough taking apart something we had spent so much time building, this step ensured that every team would start the competition on equal footing.
Careful organization became just as important as engineering. By sorting components into labeled categories, we made it easier to locate parts quickly during the six-hour build window.
Race Against the Clock at Reliant Stadium
On September 12, we traveled to Reliant Stadium ready to take on the challenge.
What made the event especially exciting was that we still didn’t know exactly what the upcoming FTC season would involve. We had to rely on strong, versatile design principles rather than building for a specific game.
As soon as the timer started, the room transformed into a flurry of activity. Team members rushed to assemble the chassis, mount motors, wire electronics, and install mechanisms. Weeks of practice began paying off as everyone knew their role and worked efficiently to keep the build moving forward.
Every minute mattered. A misplaced part or forgotten tool could cost valuable time.
The Domino’s Pizza Box Solution
Of course, no engineering project is complete without an unexpected problem.
As we worked on assembling our intake and transfer system, we realized we had forgotten an important component: the ramp that helped transfer game pieces through the mechanism.
With time ticking away, we had two choices: give up on the design or find a creative solution.
Engineers love solving problems, so we got creative.
Looking around for materials, we spotted an empty Domino’s Pizza box. After some quick brainstorming, cutting, and fitting, the cardboard was transformed into a replacement ramp for our transfer system.
It wasn’t made of aluminum. It wasn’t 3D printed. It certainly wasn’t part of the original plan.
But it worked.
That improvised pizza-box ramp became one of the most memorable moments of the event and a perfect example of FTC’s spirit of innovation. When things don’t go according to plan, great teams adapt and keep moving forward.
More Than Just a Robot
By the end of the six hours, we had successfully rebuilt our robot and proven that our preparation had paid off.
The challenge wasn’t just about finishing a robot. It was about learning how to work efficiently, communicate under pressure, stay organized, and solve unexpected problems. It showed us how important preparation and teamwork are when facing an unknown challenge.
Most importantly, it gave us confidence heading into the new FTC BioBuzz season. The experience reminded us that success isn’t just measured by the robot you build, but by the skills and resilience you develop along the way.
Whether it’s designing a custom intake system, rebuilding an entire robot in a single afternoon, or turning a Domino’s Pizza box into a critical part of a mechanism, the Byte Bandits are ready for whatever challenges BioBuzz brings next.
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