Here at the Raiders, we strive to educate and inform our students about the technical fields of science, mathematics, technology, electronics, and robotics. With the help of the community, local businesses, parents, mentors, and teachers, our students will work together with one another for a period of six weeks learning and building upon a robot in preparations for the FIRST Robotics Competition. During these few but crucial weeks the students are pushed to their limits in both knowledge and know-how of each particular field, and unknowingly they are preparing themselves for the future workforce.

About the Team

The Raiders are FIRST Robotics Team 1518, situated at the Pal-Mac High School located in Palmyra, New York. The team was founded early in the autumn of the 2005 FIRST Robotics season with the help of several local community businesses and a variety of community sponsors. The team includes a total of eleven student members and seven team mentors. Our generous community volunteers range in several of the technological fields, from mechanical, to electrical, to programming, to even animation and web design.

About Pal-Mac High School

Pal-Mac High School , residing in the residential suburbs of Palmyra, NY, offers a comprehensive curriculum for students in grades nine through twelve. In addition to the traditional core subjects, students can choose from a wide variety of Advanced Placement courses for college credits, as well as a numerous amount of electives in arts, music, engineering, business and more. Vocational and alternative educational experiences are also made available to the students. A highly skilled and capable staff works to help create a warm and welcoming atmosphere for all of the students and actively encourages the involvement of parents in their children's educational experiences.

Team Organization

First Robotics Team Raiders has been built upon a solid leadership structure. Each student member elects a team leader of their choosing, and the duly elected senior (twelfth grader) selected becomes the team president. This leader directs the entire team and tries to help out with every situation that he or she possibly can. For specialized work, team captains are chosen from a select group of students who are the foremost in their own area of expertise; the remaining students are then devised up into the following four sub teams:

• Mechanical/Fabrication: The mechanical/fabrication team is responsible for the design and production of all mechanical components for the robot, as well as the fabrication of the entire robot. All components are first designed in a CAD program, and usually a prototype will be produced before the final assembly is created. This team is also responsible for the design, construction, and assessment of the in game piece manipulator for the robot.

• Electrical: The electrical team is responsible for the design, production, and assessment of all of the electrical components that will be used upon the robot and inside the user control panel, as well as the configuration of all of the electronically controlled systems. This team is also responsible for any and all pneumatically controlled devices that the robot may use, such as a claw-like holding structure, in this years FIRST Robotics Competition.

• Programming: The programming team is responsible for the development and maintenance of all of the coding that will enable the robot to maneuver throughout the FIRST Robotics Competition; this includes both the autonomous and manual mode control settings. This team is also responsible for learning and understanding all of the written rules and standards of the FIRST Robotics game match to instruct the team on what can and can't be done to better the robot.

• Animation/Web Design: The animation/web design team is responsible for the teams website design, construction, and maintenance in order to ready it for the FIRST Webpage award. This team is also responsible for any and all animation and photography that will be done on the team, including photos and videos created from the robots construction, team meetings, special projects, and any footage of this years FIRST Robotics Competition.