2025-2026 build

this year's robot

Built for the 2025-2026 DECODE season. We went through three major versions: a starter bot for our first scrimmage, a spindexer test rig for qualifiers, and a clean rebuild for outreach and Lobster Cup.

view versions
2025-2026 DECODE robot
Version 1 robot at The Play Space
v1 · December 6, 2025

version 1

Our first real competition robot. It was nothing fancy, just a solid drivetrain, intake, and scoring mechanism that let us play matches and figure out what actually mattered on the field.

  • First event: The Play Space #6, December 6, 2025
  • Basic mecanum drive and a simple intake
  • Taught us where the cycle time bottlenecks were
v2 · January 18, 2026

version 2

We tried a spindexer to sort and feed artifacts into the scorer. It was a cool idea but never ran consistently enough to trust in a match. Still, the judges liked the design enough to give us an award.

  • Competed at Santa Clara QT #2, January 18, 2026
  • Added a spindexer for indexing artifacts
  • Won the Design Award for the spindexer concept
  • Ended up too unreliable for match play, so we moved on
Design Award at Santa Clara QT #2
Version 2 robot at Santa Clara QT
Version 3 robot for outreach and Lobster Cup
v3 · upcoming

version 3

After qualifiers we stripped the spindexer and built a simpler, tougher robot for outreach demos and the Lobster Cup off-season event. The goal is reliability: fewer things to break, easier to fix, and still competitive.

  • Built for outreach events and the 2026 Lobster Cup International World Invitational
  • Off-season event in Silicon Valley, date TBD
  • Simpler mechanism layout, easier to service between matches

want to see it compete?

Catch us at DECODE qualifiers and scrimmages throughout the season, or check the 2025-2026 season page for updates.

2025-2026 season page