Team 16688A · VexKan Robotics
Built From
the Ground Up
A field guide to VEX Robotics, from your first build to the competition floor. Chapters, calculators, an engineering notebook, and an assistant that hands you the next steps.
Written from 6 real robots
Every mechanism chapter anchors to a real 16688A build, drivetrains, intakes, PTOs, pneumatics, and more, written in plain, first-person coaching voice.
A gear-ratio calculator, a mechanism decision picker, a season timeline, and a fillable engineering notebook, things a page can't do.
Describe what you are stuck on and get the short version plus your actual next steps, with links back to the book and out to official VEX documentation.
Part I — VEX IQ Fundamentals
See all chapters →Welcome to VEX IQ
What VEX IQ is, and why it's the right place to start.
The Season Starts Before You Touch a Robot
The game manual is a design brief, not a rulebook. Read it that way from day one.
Brainstorming Your Robot
Finding the right idea fast, before you build, test, and refine it.
Research Skills for Robotics
Where to look, what to watch for, and who to study before you pick up a beam.
Building the Drivetrain
Get the drivetrain wrong and nothing else on the robot matters.
Intakes
The only part of the robot that actually touches the game element.
Part II — V5RC Advanced
See all chapters →The Jump to V5RC
Not drafted yet.
Advanced Drivetrains
Wheel size, gear ratio, and wheel placement. Nail these before anything else.
Lifts, 4-Bar, 6-Bar, and DR4B
A research pass, not a build story. We haven't built one of these on 16688A yet.
Launchers, Catapults, Flywheels & Punchers
A research pass, not a build story. We haven't built one of these ourselves yet.
Pneumatics (V5RC)
How to wire a lot of functions off a small air budget.
Autonomous and Odometry
Not drafted yet.