Warrior Robotics, VEX team 92008A
Founding member of my school's first VEX V5 team. I program the robot, coach the drive team, scout, and run the schedule.
- When
- 2024 – now
- Role
- Founding member, programmer, drive coach, lead scout, project manager
- Built with
- C++, VEX V5
- Links
- VEX team page
What I built
Army and Navy Academy didn't have a robotics program before 2024. A few of us started one, and in its second season we won a regional outright.
I write and test the code for our competition robot, both the autonomous routines and driver control, then coach the drive team from behind the field during matches. I scout other teams for alliance selection. As project manager I run weekly meetings, keep a master schedule, and track what the build, code, and drive groups owe each other before every competition.
At JROTC events the robot is only part of it. Judges inspect the robot, read our engineering notebook, interview cadets on our reasoning, and run a skills challenge that scores autonomous programming and driver control separately.
What was hard
Latency. Even small delays in the code changed how the robot drove, and you feel it most in a close match.
Making the final call under pressure: when a part fails between matches, someone has to decide what gets fixed, what gets cut, and still pass inspection.
What I learned
How much timing matters in anything that reacts to the real world. It's why I now read about faster vision models for robots.
Running a team of cadets is a lot like running a battalion staff: most problems are coordination problems.
Results
Undefeated at the 2026 Army JROTC San Diego Regional: Tournament Champion, Robot Skills Champion, and the Innovate Award.
3rd in Robot Skills at the 2026 JROTC National Championship in Sandusky, Ohio.
Competed at the VEX Robotics World Championship in 2025 (Dallas) and 2026 (St. Louis).
Season log
- 2024–25Season one: High Stakes
Program founded. First robot, first notebook, first competitions.
- May 2025JROTC National Championship at VEX Worlds, Dallas
Held inside the VEX Robotics World Championship at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
- 2025–26Season two: Push Back
- Jan 2026Army JROTC San Diego Regional
Hosted by the 8th Brigade Army ROTC, 23 teams from across the Pacific. 7-0 in qualifying, swept the finals 4-0. Tournament Champion, Robot Skills Champion, and the Innovate Award, which recognizes design process, engineering documentation, and technical performance.
- Jan 2026JROTC National Championship, Sandusky, Ohio
3rd place in Robot Skills.
- Apr 2026VEX Robotics World Championship, St. Louis
- 2026–27Season three
In progress.
Team
Coach: Col. Erick Kunak
2025–26 roster: Cohen Lu (captain), Tyler Hansen, Ottmar Hung, Jincheng Wang, Nicolas Chestnut, Ziteng Chen, and me