| Current season or competition: Logo Motion 2011 FIRST Robotics Competition season |
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| Sport | Robotics-related games |
|---|---|
| Founded | Dean Kamen Woodie Flowers |
| Commissioner | Walt Havenstein Bill Miller[1] |
| Motto | The varsity sport for the mind What inspires you? (2011) |
| Inaugural season | 1992 |
| No. of teams | 2,075[2] |
| Country(ies) | |
| Most recent champion(s) | Chairman's Award Winner: 359: Hawaiian Kids Champion Teams: 254: Cheesy Poofs 111: WildStang 973: Greyhound Revolutionary Robotics |
| TV partner(s) | NASA TV |
| Official website | www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc |
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition organized by FIRST. Each year, teams of high school students compete to build robots weighing up to 120 pounds (54 kg), not including battery and bumpers, that can complete a task, which 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 operate autonomously as well as when guided by wireless controls, to accomplish the game's tasks.[3]
In 2010, the 19th year of competition, 1,808 high school teams with roughly 45,000 students from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Turkey, the Netherlands, Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Mexico were involved.[4] In 2011, 2,075 teams participated in competitions in the United States, Canada, and Israel.[2]
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FIRST was founded in 1989. The first FRC season was in 1992. From 1992 to 2004, games were played with two teams to each alliance, a group of teams that are allied for one match. From 2005 on, the modern era, games are played with three teams to each alliance.[5]
Every year, a different game is played. However, many game rules do not change from year to year and the competitive structure has not changed significantly since the competition started. Teams are randomly assigned alliances of 3 teams, which are 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.[6][7][8][9][10] Teams use scoring objects on the field to get points, and they sometimes get bonus points for achieving tasks such as ending with the robot on a platform, behind a certain line, or even hanging from a field structure.
The FRC community is generally very friendly and cooperative with one another; at competitions it is commonplace for teams to aid each other in repairs and improvements, even if the involved teams are slated to compete against each other. Most regional competitions have systems set up to facilitate the lending of parts and tools between teams. A notable example of parts-sharing is the "One-Day Wonder". In 2004, at the Championship Event in Atlanta, GA, the Tottenville High School Pyrobots found themselves without a robot due to a shipping error. The Robotic Eagles (358), Adams Robotics (1340), the Killer Bees (33), and the Goodrich Martians (494), some of who would be on opposing teams in future matches, donated parts, tools, and assistance constructing a competition ready robot within a single day - a feat which the competition allows six weeks for.[11][12][13][14]
Some teams also choose to collaborate during the build season. The degree of collaboration can range from sharing part designs to each team building exactly the same robot. FIRST has encouraged this practice, as shown in an official Q&A 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 "coopertition" is based on the idea of teams helping each other to compete.
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.[15] 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.[16]
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 the location of their first competition.[17] Competitions for FIRST consist of dozens of regional competitions, and one championship event.
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.[18] 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 champion.
The FIRST Robotics Competition is most prominent in the United States, where FIRST was originally founded, though teams from Canada have been disproportionately successful. FIRST urges teams and sponsors to expand the reach of FRC by helping start new FIRST teams. International expansion has been most successful in North America where there are over 1,200 teams in the United States and over 70 in Canada (mostly in Ontario and Quebec). Although teams from British Columbia have competed in the past the only Canadian team west of Ontario remaining is 1482 from Calgary, Alberta. FIRST Robotics has recently reached Mexico, where 12 teams have been founded since 2007. There is a significant contingent of FIRST teams in Brazil and Israel. Both countries have hosted regional competitions in the past; Israel continues to host one yearly, guaranteeing at least three Israeli or European teams in the Championship.[19]
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.[20] 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.[21]
Teams are expected to solicit individuals, sponsors, and businesses for support in the form of donations of time, money, or skills. The average team has approximately 25 students, but participation has ranged from 4 to 100.[22]
A FRC team typically has approximately 25 students,[22] but can range anywhere from 10 to 100. Teams are also sponsored and aided by adult mentors, who can be professional engineers, teachers, parents, college students, or any other interested adults. The degree to which the mentors are involved varies significantly from team to team. FIRST's recommended season stretches the full year, starting with 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.[23]
Most FIRST regional events take place between Thursday and Saturday in a week in March.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26] All three teams in an alliance that wins a regional earns a reserved spot at the championship event, which in 2011 will be in St. Louis, Missouri.[27][28][29] Hall of Fame teams automatically qualify for the Championships, regardless of regional statistics.
All events have the same tournament structure: qualification matches followed by elimination matches.
District events are smaller than regional events and are held at much smaller venues, usually high school gymnasiums. A typical district event has between 20-40 teams. Winning a district event does not necessarily qualify a team for the FIRST Championship. For 2009 through 2011, the US state of Michigan was the only region to hold district events. Beginning with 2012, a second district region was created, the Mid-Atlantic Robotics Region (MAR), comprising New Jersey, Delaware and eastern Pennsylvania.[30]
Regionals typically involve between 30–65 teams, and regional events with more than 70 teams are usually split into two: for example, the Toronto and Seattle events have two regionals that share the same arena at the same time.[24] Teams that win a regional event automatically qualify for the FIRST Championship.[31]
Due to FIRST's mission to exposing students and the community at large to science and engineering, the three 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.
The Chairman's Award is the most prestigious award a team can win at a regional or at the championship, more so than even winning the competition itself.[32] 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 (10,000 characters) documenting the team's efforts at spreading the message of FIRST, as well as student interviews with judges at the competition.
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 Möbius strip with bearings inside it.
The Dean's List Award is given to individual student team members. Much like the Woodie Flowers Award for mentors, the Dean's List Award is to recognize students for their technical knowledge, leadership skills, and their ability to inspire their team toward the mission of FIRST. Teams are allowed to recognize 2 students on their team as Dean's List Semi-Finalist, as semi-finalist they eligible to win the Dean's List Finalist Award at a regional. 2 Dean's List Finalist Awards are given out at every regional. At the annual FIRST Championship 10 finalists are then awarded the Dean's List Award during a special award ceremony.
At the start of the FIRST season all of the teams receive the Kit Of Parts and the game description. The kit includes the control system and a collection of parts to build a basic robot, as well as many parts donated by participating sponsors. Besides the control system, the kit includes items such as motors, structural components, speed controllers, pneumatic actuators, wheels, and gearboxes, as well as programming and design software. The control system and the provided software has a history of terrible documentation. As soon as the teams receive their kit of parts, the 6-week build season begins.[33] Teams are allowed to purchase additional off-the-shelf items where each individual item value may not exceed $400 USD with a total maximum project budget of $3,500.[34]
Another aspect of the competition is the dozens of companies that supply parts, tools, financial support and mentoring to the FIRST teams. These companies donate thousands of dollars worth of top-of-the-line parts to be included in the Kit of Parts. Items include bearings, tubing, slides, switches, tools, controls, software, and robot frames. Many of these sponsors also participate at the Championships by hosting booths in the Supplier Showcase.[35]
The PBS documentary "Gearing Up" followed four teams through the 2008 season.[36]
In the television series Dean of Invention, Dean Kamen made appeals promoting FIRST prior to commercial breaks.[37]
During the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition season, FIRST team 3132, Thunder Down Under was followed by a Macquarie University student film crew to document the first year of FRC in Australia. The crew produced a documentary film called I, Wombot.[38][39] The film premiered during the 2011 Dungog Film Festival.[40][41]
The CNN documentary "Don't Fail Me: Education in America", which aired on 15 May 2011, followed three FRC teams during the 2011 season.[42]
On August 14th, 2011, ABC aired a special on FIRST called "i.am FIRST: Science is Rock and Roll"[43] that featured many famous musical artists such as The Black Eyed Peas and Willow Smith. will.i.am himself was the executive producer of the special. The program placed a special focus on the FIRST Robotics competition, even though it included segments on the FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST Lego League, and Junior FIRST Lego League.
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