FIRST Robotics Competition

From the Team 1432 Robotics Wiki

The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is a program put on by FIRST for high school–aged students to design, build, and program robots to accomplish specific goals. FIRST's website states that FRC is "a unique varsity sport of the mind designed to help high-school-aged young people discover how interesting and rewarding the life of engineers and researchers can be." Team 1432 participates in the FRC Oregon Regional each year.

Students are given the opportunity to work with mentors, professionals, and each other to produce a real working product. They gain valuable experience in skills that are likely to help them later in life.

The Challenge

FRC is based around a game or challenge that changes annually. While the specifics change, several key aspects have remained the same for many years:

• Teams are grouped into alliances of 3 teams; two alliances (red and blue) compete with each other in each competition round.
• There are game pieces of various forms, often with red and blue game pieces corresponding to each alliance (this was not the case for the 2009 competition).
• There is a short "autonomous period" at the beginning of each match during which the robots run code to perform actions on their own (in 2008, this took the form of a "hybrid" mode, with some human interaction involved).
• The main focus of the match is the "teleoperated period", where the team members control the robots with their drive systems.
• There is some human interaction (aside from driving) involving game pieces.
• Scores (not including penalties) are calculated by observing the state of the field, game pieces, and robots at the end of the match.

Competition Timeline

FRC follows a similar schedule every year:

• Competition season begins with a kickoff near the beginning of the calendar year, at which a video feed is broadcast live from FIRST headquarters in New Hampshire.
  • Preceding the kickoff, several hints are sent to teams about the nature of the challenge.
  • FIRST founder Dean Kamen and Game and Design Committee member Dr. Woodie Flowers speak about the development of FIRST, the future, and more. There are usually guest speakers as well.
  • The game is revealed with an animation and a live demonstration.
    • Access to the full set of rules and specifications is given to teams (via the password to a protected set of PDF files).
    • A Kit of Parts is given to each team for use in building and testing their robot.
  • Kamen and Flowers assign some type of "homework" for all teams to complete for the next year's kickoff, often a community- or outreach-oriented activity.
• The build season commences, lasting 6 weeks.
  • During this time, teams design, build, and program their robot, keeping in mind the gameplay, rules, and specifications.
  • FIRST releases any necessary amendments or clarifications to the rules, or other Team Updates.
• Teams ship their robots off to their regional competitions, ensuring that all teams have the same amount of time to build.
• Regionals occur in various locations over the course of several weeks.
  • Awards are given at the regionals, and a select few teams are invited to the national competition.