COMMITTEES

The mechanical committee is the club's project improvement force. We build projects that support the club's goals and make robot combat possible. Right now we are improving the large Railside Rumble arena with projects like ventilation and arena traps, and designing a test box for larger 12 and 30 lb robots along with dummy robots for drive practice.

The club's largest build so far was the Essig PLM Arena Project in 2024-2025. Students handled the CAD design, material sourcing, fabrication, and assembly, putting more than 600 manufacturing hours into a steel-framed arena with dual-layer polycarbonate panels and a 64-square-foot fighting floor. The arena hosted the inaugural Railside Rumble.

Current projects are the Antweight Training Bot, Antweight Pack Flat Test Box, Beetleweight Arena Improvements, Big Bot Test Box, and Arena Traps. Together they strengthen the club's presence in combat robotics on campus and at local competitions.

Two of these are long-term projects: the Big Bot Test Box, built to be extremely durable, and the Beetleweight Arena Improvements, which will keep improving the experience for competitors and viewers as the club continues to host Railside Rumbles.

The electrical committee handles the club's electrical projects and chooses the electrical components used for onboarding. Our primary goal is to expand electrical expertise within the club and improve the club experience. This semester, we are collecting power consumption data for common bot components so members can make better-informed electronics decisions. We teach digital electronics, rapid electrical prototyping, and PCB design.

Last semester, most of our work focused on the arena controller (lights, sound, and timer), but new members have let us branch out. We are not focused on providing an in-house PD board, arena improvements (screens, traps), and bot power logging. This semester is the first time Railside has designed and ordered custom PCBs, and we are upgrading the arena controller with new PCB modules.

Our long-term plans are still taking shape, but we want to keep making the arena and the competition experience better. We will also keep offering part testing to teams and building out our database. The team is new (last semester was our first with active projects), and as members' skills grow, future projects may include a custom bot mainboard for onboarding or custom ESCs.

The business committee handles outreach, sponsor relations, media content, and promotional materials for Railside Robotics. We meet once a week to plan upcoming events and review individual tasks. If you are interested in marketing, sales, content creation, video editing, social media, photography, videography, accounting, or event planning, or you just love robots and business, reach out to us on social media or BoilerLink.

Current projects include designing club T-shirts, improving our social media strategy, and producing promotional videos. We also help organize events so they run smoothly and reach more people, on campus and online.