FIRST Robotics Competition

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of the article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. Please include more appropriate citations from reliable sources.
This article has been tagged since November 2006.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is a high school robotics competition organized by FIRST. As of late 2006, over 1,300 high school teams of 32,500[1] students from Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ghana, and more compete to build 120 pound robots that can complete a task that changes every year. Teams are given a standard set of parts and the game details at the beginning of January and are given six weeks to construct a competitive robot that can accomplish the game's task.[2] In 2007, teams competed in 37[3] regional competitions throughout March to try and qualify for the championship event in Atlanta, Georgia in April. Previous years' championships have been held in Houston, Texas and at the Epcot Center near Disney World.[4]

Contents

[edit] Competition concept

"Raptor", a 2007 FRC robot.
"Raptor", a 2007 FRC robot.

The FIRST Robotics Competition involves teams of mentors (corporate employees, teachers, or college students) and high school students who collaborate to design and build a robot in six weeks. This robot is designed to play a game, which is designed by FIRST and changes from year to year. This game is announced at a nationally simulcast kickoff event in January[5]. Regional competitions take place around the United States as well as in Canada and Israel, but FIRST has a multinational following that further includes the United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, and Germany.[6]

Teams are expected to solicit local businesses for support in the form of donations of time, money, or skills. The average team has approximately 25 students, but participation can range from 10 to 100[7].

Intermission during Aim High in Los Angeles, encouraging teams to socialize
Intermission during Aim High in Los Angeles, encouraging teams to socialize

[edit] Competition details

The competition is a yearly event. The most intense participation occurs between the months of January and April, but "mini-competitions" are hosted by many teams in school gymnasiums throughout the year[8]. In early January, FIRST announces the details of a game to all participating teams. The game changes very much from year to year, with only a few rules such as the approximate size of the robot staying the same.[9]

For the next six weeks following the kickoff, called the "build season," the teams begin to design a robot to play the game, essentially from scratch. Team members spend the time designing strategies to play the game, drawing up ideas for robot parts, working with size and weight constraints, and finally, building and assembling their robot. Other challenges include gaining driver experience, building the electronics for the robot, and programming it. After the build season has ended (usually the 3rd full week of February), teams must ship their robot to where their first competition is.[10] Competitions for FIRST consist of 37 regional competitions, and one championship event. Regionals typically involve between 20–65 teams[11]. Teams are randomly paired into qualification matches, where they earn 'qualifying points', the calculation of which changes each year. The game changes every year, but for the most part, they involve some autonomous (computer controlled) robot operation for 10–15 seconds at the beginning of a match, followed by a much longer period (usually 2 minutes) of remote control[12][13][14][15][16]. Teams use scoring objects on the field to get points, which are evaluated only after the match has completely ended.

The Championship event is held every year in April, often in a large stadium or convention center in the Southeastern United States. The championship event consists of four divisions of 85–95 teams competing on one of four fields: Galileo, Newton, Archimedes and Curie[17]. The teams compete for the division championship title in the same way they would compete in a regional. The division champions then bring their robots over to the Einstein field to compete in an elimination tournament to determine the national champion.

[edit] Competitions

[edit] Kit of Parts

At the beginning of the build season at the kickoff events, teams receive the Kit Of Parts and the game description. The kit of parts is a collection of everything a team needs to make a functioning robot, although teams are allowed to purchase additional off the shelf items with individual item value not exceeding $400USD with a total maximum budget of $3500USD[18]. The kit of parts includes robot controllers, motors, speed controllers, and software such as Autodesk, MPLAB IDE, 3D Studio Max, and much more. As soon as the teams receive the kit of parts, the 6-week build season begins.[19]

[edit] Competition

A map of North American regional competitions in 2007
A map of North American regional competitions in 2007

Most FIRST regional events take place between Thursday and Saturday in a week in March[20]. Thursday is typically a practice day where matches take place but do not count towards final standings. All day Friday and on Saturday morning, teams participate in qualifying matches[21][22][23]. On Saturday afternoon, after the qualification matches have ended, the top eight ranked teams will pick partners from any team ranked below them, and the resulting alliances will compete to be regional winner. The top teams pick their partners starting with the top-ranked team, proceeding to the 8th ranked team, then back from the 8th team to the 1st team again. The alliances picked this way then proceed into elimination rounds, set up into quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. Each quarterfinal, semifinal, and final is determined by a best-of-3 matchup between the two alliances.[24] All 3 robots in an alliance that wins a regional earns a reserved spot at the championship event in Atlanta[25], although they still must pay the entry fee and for transportation.[26]

[edit] Awards

Due to FIRST's mission to exposing students and the community at large to science and engineering, the two most prestigious awards they give out are awarded not to teams that have demonstrated the most prowess in the game, but to those teams and individuals who have done the most to realize FIRST's mission.

[edit] Chairman's Award

The chairman's award is the most prestigious award a team can win at a regional or at the championship, including winning the regional competition itself[27]. Demonstrating the prestige of the award, a team that wins a Regional Chairman's Award receives a reserved spot at the championship event so that they may compete for the Championship Chairman's award, regardless of their on-field performance. The Chairman's award was created to recognize teams that demonstrate the greatest commitment to spreading passion about science and technology into their communities and schools. Submission involves writing an essay of approximately 2,500 words documenting the team's efforts at spreading the message of FIRST, as well as interviews with judges at the competition.

[edit] Woodie Flowers Award

The Woodie Flowers Award is awarded to a mentor within a team that the team believes has made a large contribution to them and deserves to be recognized. Criteria is based on how well the chosen mentor inspires the students towards better communication and engineering. Any regional WFA winner is eligible to be considered for the Championship WFA, though past regional WFA winners may not again win a regional WFA, to allow other mentors the chance to be recognized. The WFA trophy itself is a head-sized moebius strip with bearings inside it.

[edit] Team Organization

The 2006 Triplets of 1114, 1503, and 1680. 1114 and 1503 won 3 regionals each, while 1680 won a bronze medal and was a quarterfinalist twice
The 2006 Triplets of 1114, 1503, and 1680. 1114 and 1503 won 3 regionals each, while 1680 won a bronze medal and was a quarterfinalist twice

A FRC team typically has approximately 25 students[28], but can range anywhere from 10 to 100. FIRST's recommended season stretches the full year, stretching from recruiting and fundraising in September to December, robot construction and competition in January through April, then returning to fundraising and community involvement events until August.[29] Teams may find success in collaborating with other teams, with the degree of collaboration ranging from sharing part designs to each team building the exact same robot. FIRST has encouraged this practice, as shown in a QA response from 2006:

Q: Is collaboration between 2 teams acceptable and encouraged by FIRST? A: Absolutely. Teams are encouraged to share their knowledge, experience, and innovations with each other on and off the play field, as well as before, during and after the competition season. Without inter-team collaborations, many of the central elements of the FIRST philosophy - such as distribution of technical innovations, team workshops, shared designs, software code-sharing, teams mentoring teams, team-run off-season events, etc. - would all be impossible. The whole concept of "coopetition" is based on the idea of teams helping each other to compete.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Who/Media_Center/Press_Releases_and_FIRST_News/07Kickoff_press_release_FINAL.pdf
  2. ^ http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/education/FIRST_Buckeye2006.html
  3. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Who/Media_Center/Press_Releases_and_FIRST_News/07Kickoff_press_release_FINAL.pdf
  4. ^ FIRST Robotics Competition. FIRST. Retrieved on June 9, 2006.
  5. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=418&menu_id=80
  6. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/whatsgoingon.aspx
  7. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/what/frc/content.aspx?id=368
  8. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=436&menu_id=80
  9. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=4094
  10. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/FRC_Documents_and_Updates/2007_assets/Manual/4%20-%20Robot_Transportation_RevC.pdf
  11. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/regionalevents.aspx?id=430
  12. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/Team_Resources/Archived_Game_Docs/2002%20-%20Game%20Manual.pdf
  13. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/Team_Resources/Archived_Game_Docs/2003%20-%20The%20Game.pdf
  14. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/Team_Resources/Archived_Game_Docs/2004%20-%20The%20Game.pdf
  15. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/Team_Resources/Archived_Game_Docs/2005%20-%20The%20Game.pdf
  16. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=3630
  17. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=432&menu_id=80
  18. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/FRC_Documents_and_Updates/2007_assets/Manual/8-The_Robot,Rev%20G.pdf
  19. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/FRC_Documents_and_Updates/2007_assets/Manual/10%20-%20The_Kit_of_Parts.pdf
  20. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/regionalevents.aspx?id=430
  21. ^ http://www2.usfirst.org/2007comp/Events/NJ/matchresults.html
  22. ^ http://www2.usfirst.org/2007comp/Events/LA/matchresults.html
  23. ^ http://www2.usfirst.org/2007comp/Events/MD/matchresults.html
  24. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/FRC_Documents_and_Updates/2007_assets/Manual/9%20-%20The_Tournament_RevA.pdf
  25. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=944
  26. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=454
  27. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/FRC_Documents_and_Updates/2007_assets/Manual/5%20-%20Awards_%20RevB.pdf
  28. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/what/frc/content.aspx?id=368
  29. ^ http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/Team_Resources/Appendix%20D%20Team%20Sample%20Timeline3.pdf

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../f/i/r/FIRST_Robotics_Competition_872b.html"