CFI Robotics Teams Celebrate an Outstanding Season at the Illinois State 4-H Robotics Competition

What a season for our CFI Robotics teams!

We are incredibly proud of all of our students for their hard work, dedication, and teamwork at this year’s Illinois State 4-H Robotics Competition. This season challenged students to think like engineers as they designed, built, programmed, tested, and improved robots for the 2026 ArchaeoBot Challenge.

The ArchaeoBot Challenge asked teams to design and program robots that could simulate real archaeological fieldwork. Teams worked on missions connected to navigation, artifact recovery, preservation, mapping, excavation, and reconstruction. Students also had to explain their robot design, programming choices, mission strategy, teamwork, and innovation to judges.

CFI was represented by several outstanding teams:

🔹 CCA – Cyber Creatures of Anarchy

🔹 CIA – Chicago Investigative Archaeologists

🔹 TerraMinions

🔹 D-Dolphins

Each team brought its own strengths to the competition, and every student contributed to a season full of learning, problem-solving, and growth.

Team CIA: Chicago Investigative Archaeologists

Team CIA entered the competition with an ambitious and highly technical approach. The team focused on building a durable, fast, consistent, and strategic robot system. In their robot design presentation, CIA explained how they used strong frame connections, balanced weight, front-wheel drive, and wall reset points to improve performance. They also used advanced gyro-based programming, including gyro straight, gyro turn, and a gyro fix block to improve accuracy.

Everett explained the meaning behind the team name: “We chose that name because it represents Chicago while also matching how our team approaches robotics: we investigate problems carefully, analyze evidence, and design smart solutions.”

CIA also showed a strong engineering mindset. Students documented their work, tested different mechanisms, redesigned mission solutions, and improved their Soil Layer Removal mission by almost 40 seconds. As David said in the team’s presentation, “Those missions show both our technical ability and our ability to make smart strategic choices under competition constraints.”

Team members from CIA are now returning full-time to prepare for FIRST LEGO League Nationals in just one month.

CCA: Cyber Creatures of Anarchy

CCA had an excellent rookie season and earned the Programming Award in the Rookie Division. As a large rookie team with students ages eight to eleven, CCA had to learn how to divide jobs, explain ideas clearly, and build a robot that many teammates could test, reset, and improve.

Adeline described one of the team’s strengths by saying, “We are a large rookie team with students from ages eight to eleven, so our team has a wide mix of experience, ideas, and learning styles.”

The team emphasized repeated testing, practical improvements, and reusable programming. They used gyro straight and gyro turn blocks, comments in their code, wall alignment, and repeatable movement strategies. Alban explained why readable code mattered, saying, “That really matters on a 10-student team, because code should not belong to just one person.”

CCA’s season showed how a new team can grow quickly when students learn to test, adjust, communicate, and support one another.

TerraMinions

TerraMinions was a rookie six-student team that showed strong growth throughout the season. Their robot design included multiple pin connections, small EV3 support wheels, flat front and back surfaces for wall alignment, front-wheel drive, and gyro straight and gyro turn MyBlocks. The team attempted six missions, choosing missions based on what matched their robot’s strengths.

Matthew described the team’s rookie season well: “We are a rookie team, so this season was a lot about exploring ideas, testing them, and learning what actually works on a real competition table.”

TerraMinions focused on consistency and improvement. Students tested movement rotations, adjusted programs, tuned KP values, and learned to troubleshoot problems one step at a time. Michael explained, “We may be a newer team, but we worked hard to make smart improvements and turn mistakes into better solutions.”

Their work showed that a rookie team does not need to solve every mission to have a successful season. TerraMinions built confidence by learning how to choose realistic goals, improve their robot, and use feedback from testing to guide their next steps.

D-Dolphins

D-Dolphins had a fantastic season and earned two major Rookie Division awards: Reserve Champions and Top Table Performance Award. The D-Dolphins selected seven missions! Their robot design presentation explained how they organized their work across mechanical design, programming, strategy, and innovation. Students described robots named Timothy and Bob, each built for specific missions.

Koan explained how Timothy used a worm gear linear actuator for Missions 5 and 10. He said, “Same motor, same gear, two missions. We didn’t need to build two separate systems.” This showed how the team thought carefully about mechanical efficiency.

Fred explained how Bob was designed for multiple missions. He shared that the team improved from a single hook to two D-handle grabbers after testing showed the artifact kept sliding off.

D-Dolphins also showed strong creativity in their mission work. Noah explained the team’s Mission 6 innovation with a pen attachment for drawing X marks. After the first version did not work, the team improved it with a movable arm. Noah said, “Overall, this mission showed us that innovation is about testing, improving, and never giving up when something doesn’t work at first.”

Their awards reflected not only strong table performance but also the team’s ability to test, redesign, and keep improving.

URC Robo Sumo State Championship

CFI students also had an incredible showing at the URC Robo Sumo State Championship.

🥇 Jayden & Isaias – State Champions

🏅 Jack – 4th Place

🏅 David – 5th Place

🏅 SenDa – 6th Place

Robo Sumo challenges students to drive strategically, react quickly, and make smart decisions under pressure. The event highlights driver control, real-time problem-solving, and competitive robotics strategy.

Our students represented CFI with confidence, skill, and sportsmanship throughout the competition.

More Than Awards

This season was about more than trophies and rankings.

It was about students learning how to build better robots, write stronger programs, explain their ideas, solve problems under pressure, and support their teammates. It was about learning that engineering is not about getting everything right the first time. It is about testing, failing, improving, and trying again.

Across all teams, students showed what makes CFI Robotics special: curiosity, teamwork, creativity, persistence, and pride in their work.

Thank You to Our CFI Community

Thank you to our parents, team members, coaches, volunteers, and supporters. These programs take time, energy, transportation, practice, encouragement, and a lot of behind-the-scenes work.

None of this would be possible without the hard work and support of our CFI community.

We are proud of every student who showed up, competed, supported their teammates, and represented CFI Robotics and our community.

What Comes Next

And we are not done yet.

Team members from CIA – Chicago Investigative Archaeologists are now preparing for FIRST LEGO League Nationals in just one month.

Many of our teams are also getting ready for the next season of FIRST LEGO League, the final season BioGlow, launching this August.

All teams are also preparing for the next URC Robo Sumo Competition.

Congratulations to all of our students. Keep building, keep coding, keep learning, and keep going!