About Us

We are the Bionic Bulldogs, an FTC robotics team from Riverside-Brookfield High School in Riverside, Illinois. The 2020-2021 season was our fourth year competing in the FIRST Technology Challenge. In 2019, we won first place in the Inspire award in the Chicago-North League. In 2018, we placed 5th in our league, and won the Rookie of the Year award our first year. Each year, we strive to find innovative ideas to create a successful robot, always learning from our mistakes to do better than we did before. Learn more about our robot for the current season and meet our dedicated build and programming teams.

Community Outreach

We strive to be a positive member of our community, hosting and participating in community events, and taking initiative to improve the community. In 2019, we set up a tool library program in our local community, and in 2020, we plan to create a guide for new FIRST Tech Challenge teams. Learn more about our community outreach.

Social Media

Follow us on Facebook, and Twitter!

Sponsors & Help

Of course, we could not be successful without some help, and we are very thankful to our generous sponsors. We owe much thanks to our coaches, mentors, and parent volunteers, including Mr. Weiss, Mr. and Mrs. Bowen, and Mr. O'Keefe.

About FIRST

FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and is an international organization dedicated to promoting STEM education and inspiring innovation, through competition and cooperation. The organization promotes its core values of discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and fun with the philosophy of Coopertition and Gracious Professionalism. There are four levels of robotics competitions under the FIRST umbrella, FIRST Lego League Jr. (FLL Jr.), FIRST Lego League (FLL), FIRST Technology Challenge (FTC), and FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC). The Bionic Bulldogs is a competition team participating in the FTC competition, which is open to middle and high school teams. The exciting FTC build and competition season runs from September through April.

To learn more about FIRST and its mission and philosophy, visit www.firstinspires.org

2021-2022 Game: Freight Frenzy

The theme of the 2020-2021 FIRST season is transportation. Teams of two drievrs and a coach operate a robot with the objective of delivering cargo from a warehouses and carousels to storage unites and shipping hubs. The playing feild is a 12'x12'foam mat surrounded by 1' high walls. The " warehouses" are taped-off regions in the corners of the playing field, and are obstructed by barriers that the robot must find a way around. Each team has a storage unit and carousel at the front of the playing field. Bar code tape for each team is laid between the storage units and warehouse barriers. A shipping hub for each team is placed at the midpoint between the storage units and warehouse barriers. A third shared shipping hub sits between the two warehouses, behind barriers. Robots may not interfere with another teams robots or shipping hubs. The game begins with a 30 second autonomous period, during which teams can only use preprogammed commands. A two minute driver- controlled period follows the autonomous period. The final 30 second segment of the driver-controlled period is the endgame. Bonous points may be awarded to teams based on where the robots are parked, where on the shipping hubs cargo is placed, and cargo type.

For the full official rules of Freight Frenzy from FIRST, see part two of the traditional game manual.

Part one of the traditional game manual details procedures and non-game specific rules regarding the 2021-2022 FIRST Game Changers FTC season.

Due to COVID-19, competitions will be held remotely over a week and only individual teams will be scored. Ranking will be based on how many points a team scores not how many wins. For the new remote manuals here is part 1 and part 2.