We had many highs and a few lows for the 2026 FIRST® Robotics Competition season Rebuilt. But through it all we had a lot of fun and learned a lot. We worked hard designing, building, testing and competing. But before we summarize our season we want to thank the sponsors and contributors without whom we could not have built and competed with our robot Li’ll Sebastian. Their generosity is truly appreciated.
• Vestal Central School District
• Haas Automation Inc.
• BAE Systems
• Carrier Global Corp
• Corning Inc
• IEEE Binghamton Section
• IEEE Electronics Packaging Society
• Williams Auto Group
• NYSEG
• Lockheed Martin Corporation
• State Line Auto Auction
• PTC
• Binghamton University
• Innovation Associates
• Endicott Rotary Club
• Canaugh Family
• Endicott Precision Inc.
• Visions Federal Credit Union
• Wegmans
• And numerous individual personal donations
In the Fall, 2025, there were many preparatory activities for the upcoming 2026 season, including welcoming new students to the club, making repairs and preparing the shop. However, we got some very disappointing news. Drew Williams, our lead mentor since 2022, and Renee Williams announced that they were moving to California for new careers. Drew was the lead mentor since 2022 when the club transitioned from Union-Endicott High School to Vestal High School. We were very happy for Drew in his new career but very sad about his leaving. But luckily, during this transition period Andrew Beck stepped up as lead mentor. Andrew had been a student member of FRC at his high school and had been with us as a mentor for two years. Drew continued to support the team remotely, which helped immensely.
In October 2025, we welcomed prospective new members to the club. We described what FRC is and how our team participates in the yearly competition. We explained how Southern Tier Robotics helps students gain valuable skills and experiences that prepare them for academic and career opportunities. Here we are demonstrating the 2025 robot for the FRC Reefscape competition season.
During the Fall we did preparatory work to prepare for the 2026 season.
Sam experimenting with machining parts on the CNC mill under the tutelage of mentor Kyle.
We decided that we needed a new battery cart. Douglas and Andrew are assembling the parts that were cut out on our router.
We disassembled the 2025 Reefscape robot to salvage components for the 2026 robot. We’re testing the base and drive motors to determine their status and repair/replace if necessary.
With the FRC January 2026 release of the Rebuilt game our team immediately kicked off the race to build a competitive robot.
The team gathers after reviewing the just released FRC game manual. Game rules and strategy are debated. Plans for how to proceed are drafted to meet the very tight schedule.
We broke into smaller groups to continue with the discussions. And of course we had our discussions over pizza, chips, and soda.
As part of the kick-off activities, we held multiple mock game plays to better understand game nuances.
Explaining the rules and objectives of the human mock game exercise.
Getting ready for a mock game …
In play!
Once we were back at the classroom, we continued to discuss what the robot needed to do, what strategies we should use to maximize scoring, and what the design should be for the various parts of the robot. “Chalk talk” was a common activity amongst the students and mentors.
As the design and components of the design come into focus, we begin creating and assembling prototypes to test our ideas.
Discussing aspects of the design.
Examining the state of software development.
Building and assembling prototype intake and hopper for testing.
Building and testing a field element for future testing.
For the hardware design we used the CAD tool OnShape. OnShape is taught in the technology class at school, so the students are familiar with it. Here we are working on developing the CAD drawings for the various parts and visualizing how the components fit together. Approved parts designs are sent to the workshop area where we use the mill, lathe, router, power and hand tools to fabricate the parts.
As we move through prototype testing and freeze parts of the design we manufacture and assemble components for the competition robot.
Our CNC lath and mill are used to manufacture more complicated metal components.
Flat components are manufactured on our router.
Starting assembly of the shooter.
Integration of major components of the robot.
Assembly of the spindexer.
Spindexer prototype.
Additional work needed on the robot belly pan.
A major milestone has been achieved with the assembly of the shooter and spindexer onto the base. Our robot Li’l Sebastian is now taking shape.
Programming and calibrating Li’l Sebastian are just as important as the manufacture and assembly of the hardware components.
Calibrating the camera.
With everything in place, the team starts testing the spindexer and shooter mechanisms integrated together. These are the first tests of the “fuel” being shot from Li’l Sebastian.
More testing of the software to fine tune the shooter.
The shooter coming at ya!
