ABOUT TEAM 2856
How Team 2856 works.
Planetary Drive brings Fayette County high-school students together to design, build, and program a new FIRST Robotics Competition robot each season.
Find your place
WHO WE ARE
Students lead the work from strategy through competition.
Founded in 2009, Planetary Drive is FRC Team 2856 in Lexington, Kentucky. Students lead the design decisions and day-to-day work; mentors bring experience, teach safe practice, and help the team manage everything required to compete.
Robotics gives us a place to use what we learn in class and discover the things a classroom cannot simulate: changing requirements, limited time, imperfect parts, and teammates who are counting on us.
OUR MISSION
Students learn by building and revising real systems.
We give members the chance to learn new skills, apply them to a real robot, and have fun doing it. The work develops critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, perseverance, communication, and leadership—not as abstract lessons, but as things the team needs.
WORKING PRINCIPLEEvery test informs the next revision.
WHAT GUIDES THE WORK
The standards we work by.
They are simple on purpose. The test is whether they still matter when time is short and something just broke.
Teamwork
The robot only works when mechanical, electrical, programming, strategy, and drive-team decisions work together.
Dedication
Hard problems take patience. We learn to stay with them, ask for help, and keep improving the work.
Creativity
There is rarely one correct mechanism or one clean path to a solution. Good ideas can come from anyone.
Fun
Long build days are better when the workshop is welcoming, curious, and full of people who enjoy the challenge.
HOW THE TEAM FITS TOGETHER
Four student groups, supported by mentors.
Programming
Students write and maintain the Java and WPILib software, test controls, debug the robot, and often help with assembly when the work crosses disciplines.
Electromechanical
Students design and build the machine through CAD, fabrication, mechanics, electronics, pneumatics, wiring, and safe workshop practice.
Business
Students help manage budgets, purchasing, registration, sponsor communication, travel planning, and the organization required to complete a season.
Outreach
Students plan demonstrations, document the team's work, create media, welcome new members, and connect the program with schools and the community.
Mentors & leadership
Student leaders organize work and strategy. Adult mentors teach, supervise safety, and help with registration, travel, and the logistics behind competition.
A SHORT HISTORY
Competing as Team 2856 since 2009.
Team 2856 begins
Planetary Drive joins the FIRST Robotics Competition in Lexington, Kentucky.
A new challenge
New rules and game pieces mean a new strategy, design, codebase, and robot.
The work continues
Students keep learning from mentors, one another, and the machine in front of them.
STEP INTO THE WORKSHOP