What is FIRST Robotics

What is FIRST Robotics?

February 6, 2014

By Maggie McCoy, Derek Reynolds, and Joe Sher

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics is an international high school competition founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen that combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology.

With strict rules and limited resources, teams are challenged to raise money, design a team “brand,” hone their teamwork skills and build and program robots to perform certain tasks against a field of competitors.

This is as close to real-world engineering as a student can get. Volunteer mentors from the community also come and lend their time and talent to teach and guide each team.

   - Build and compete with a robot of their own design
   - Compete and cooperate in alliances and tournaments
   - Qualify for over $16 million in college scholarships
   - Learn from professional engineers
   - Learn and use sophisticated software and hardware
   - Earn a place in the FIRST World Championship

The FIRST vision is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders. By engaging them in exciting programs that build science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills, they can inspire innovation and foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.

One of the main themes of FIRST is gracious professionalism, defined here by FIRST National Advisor Woodie Flowers, "Competition for the sake not of destroying one another, but for the sake of bettering and improving both competitors as a result of the competition."

With gracious professionalism, people can learn to compete with passion, yet still respect each other and treat one another with kindness in the process.

FIRST also allows young people to take part in journalism in order to promote their team and fundraise money. Many, if not all teams maintain a business subdivision to write awards submissions and news articles. Along with writing, some of the young people will go to businesses to gain sponsors. Business team members give the team the chance to obtain awards through writing the Chairman’s Award, the Woodie Flowers Award, and the Entrepreneurship Award.

The Chairman’s Award is an award given to the team that presents the best model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the purpose and goals of FIRST. This means spreading the word of FIRST through demonstrations and helping start new FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition), FTC (FIRST Tech Competition), and FLL (FIRST Lego League) teams. Teams document these acts through a 1-3 minute video and a roughly four page written essay. This essay and video highlight the team’s efforts in spreading the word of FIRST.

The Woodie Flowers Award was created to recognize and celebrate mentors that best leads, inspires, and empowers the team using excellent communication skills. This award recognizes only one outstanding mentor each year. One mentor is presented with the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award at each regional, and the winners of that are entered in the final Woodie Flowers Award, presented at the Championships the next year.

For the Entrepreneurship Award, we submit a business plan, detailing many of the more logistical sides of the team, explaining our mission statement, team origin, organizational structure, relationships with each other and our community, deployment of resources, future plans, financial statement, and a risk mitigation plan. This allows the more administrative team members a place to organize something for the team.

Our team is subdivided into several smaller teams that focus on specific tasks, in order to have a successful FIRST season. These are the subdivided teams we have:

The business team works with various software to create beautifully worded letters and essays. The letters are then sent out to potential sponsors in the hopes of earning support as well as to thank those who have sponsored us. Many of the essays are crafted to apply for the awards that are offered through FIRST. The business team also includes the video and photo crew which creates the videos that go with some of the awards.

The design team finalizes the blueprint for the robot. They draw the robot using AutoCad, which is then used as a guide for building the robot out of physical materials.

The build team builds the robot. They prototype the initial design of the robot, assess the pros and cons of the design and use that information to build the final robot. They use a variety of power tools and other building utensils to cut aluminum that is used for the frame of the robot. They also learn how to cut and bend lexan that is used as shielding to protect the delicate electrical board inside of the robot.

The electrical team manages the wiring of the robot. They ensure that the robot will function as planned and that everything is wired correctly. It is very important for them to keep the wiring organized to prevent malfunctions.

The programming team creates the code that will operate the robot. Multiple programs are used to write the optimal code for the operation of the robot during the competition. Programmers write the code that controls the robot during the autonomous period (the driver cannot touch the controls during this period).

If you have any questions or would like to make a donation, call Edward Katz at (208) 267-3149.