Elise Spontarelli -
Since the season began on January 10, Team 10257 at Vector Space has focused on preparing for the 2026 FIRST Robotics Competition, REBUILT presented by Haas, released that day as the official kickoff. In this game teams design robots to collect and score foam balls called fuel into their alliance’s hub and climb to score additional points. Scoring fuel and climbing effectively are key tasks for earning match points and improving rankings. This year’s game includes a short autonomous period where robots must act without driver input followed by a longer teleoperated period where drivers control the robot to score and play strategy elements involving active and inactive hubs.
The team has been prototyping several mechanisms to manipulate and shoot fuel into the hub in order to score consistently under both autonomous and driver control.
Alongside their prototyping team members, students have been building a full-size version of the hub, this season’s main scoring field element. Other students have been working on a new battery cart for this year, with the purpose of both storing and charging batteries at competitions.
This year marks a transition from last season’s mecanum wheel drive to a swerve drive system. To support learning swerve, the team is assembling a mock robot base that lets them practice driving and begin coding the control system before the main robot is complete.
With seven new members on the team, Team 10257 has expanded its capacity and set higher goals than last season, focusing on both tactical subsystems and strategic understanding of this year’s game requirements.
