FRC Team 192, the Gunn Robotics Team, originally started team 766 in the fall of 2001 for the 2002 FRC season. Initially, Team 766 took over the old metal shop, which was being shut down as Menlo-Atherton High School shifted its focus towards computers and the arts. We gratefully grabbed anything that was not sold or thrown away. 2002 became our first season and we won the Rookie All Star Award and Spirit Award at the California Robot Games, later renamed CalGames, hosted by the Western Region Robotics Forum.
By 2005, the students who started the team in 2002 had become experienced seniors, and had learned many valuable lessons during the previous 3 seasons. The team adopted a welded aluminum box tubing frame and a 6-wheel, west coast drive. The manipulator was incredibly simple, just a long arm with a hook, powered by a very geared down CIM motor, designed to do one thing: lift and move giant tetrahedrons. At the Sacramento Regional, we did incredibly well, seeding highly for the first time in our team’s existence. We advanced to the eliminations thanks to Team 245, who seeded 1st and picked us as their 1st pick. With Team 1072 as our third alliance partner, we won the Sacramento Regional, our first win in the FIRST® Robotics Competition. This catapulted the team to the international championship where we seeded highly again. Team 245 chose us again as an alliance partner. With Teams 245 and 217, we won the Archimedes Division, and advanced to Einstein Division, where teams would vie for the victor’s title. On Einstein field we won one match and narrowly lost our following two matches. We were close to winning, but our students walked away proud of how far they had come.
We went to the Silicon Valley Regional in 2006. With many team seniors moving on to universities to major in the math and sciences, we designed a simpler robot and further refined the winning drivetrain of 2005. With a shrewd and defensive driver, we were picked by Teams 254 and 581 to be their alliance partners. We went on to win the Silicon Valley Regional. For the Sacramento Regional, the team missed its first official match. However, the team went on to win all of the other qualification matches it was in and earned a #2 seed. The team was knocked out in the first round of finals matches, however.
In 2007 the team continued many of the positive things from the previous season. The drivetrain was further refined with the addition of a two-speed gearbox. The team went with a simple arm design for lifting pool tube game pieces. The team went back to the finals at Silicon Valley Regional, edging out the perennial favorite who had won the regional competition in most years. We had stiff competition and lost to the team that would go on to win the International Championships.
In 2008, the team went with a relatively complicated elevator design to lift the large inflatable ball game pieces. The elevator itself was well made and consistent thanks to our sponsor who helped professionally welded it. The design allowed us to seed 7th at the Sacramento Regional. Though we were not as successful in playing the game as past years, our robot had won the Judge’s Award, which is given to teams whose robot designs show exemplary design and construction.
In 2009, there was a whole new generation arriving but this time in the form of 8th graders and one 7th grader. The team decided to pre-register for the Championships. The design was simple, and performed decently well, enough to seed mid-range at the Championships.
In 2010, the crop of freshmen from 2006 was graduating the previous experienced generation was lost, and the new generation were charged with taking up the reins. The team went with a small and relatively simple robot that performed well and allowed the students to gain invaluable experience in design and engineering.
Building upon its past experience, the team built a robot with an elevator for 2011 that lifted the game pieces to the proper height. The team made it to the Championship yet again with a strong performance at the Sacramento Regional with Teams 1678 and 1868. The team learned a lot from its past experience and we matured to the point where we were building upon our past successes as well as learning opportunities.
2012 was a unique year for the team, taking a shape similar to that of 2006. The team experienced a lot of growth and had to adapt to a number of challenges. The initial robot design did not prove effective. The robot could only drive in straight lines and balance on the bridges at the center of the fields. Yet, through perseverance and luck, this was enough to take us to Championships on an alliance forged at the Silicon Valley Regional with Teams 254 and 971. Over the summer, the team decided to completely rebuild the robot, complete with a brand new drivetrain for the team. The robot performed surprisingly well for barely being finished the night before CalGames, but we won the competition. Old friendships die hard; we were picked by Teams 254 and 971 for our winning alliance, just as we had been at the Silicon Valley Regional.