./the_first_robotics_program

History

FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is an organization founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 in order to develop ways to excite students about engineering and technology. The FIRST Robotics Competition is designed to inspire high school students to become engineers by giving them real world experience working with professional engineers to develop a robot. The inaugural FIRST Robotics Competition was held in 1992.

       FIRST's Founder, Dean Kamen

Competition concept

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. 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.

Teams are expected to solicit local businesses for support in the form of donations of time, money, or skills. Some teams have membership of 60 or more and have established substantial presence in their local communities by helping local FIRST Lego League teams (see below), running classes in various technical topics, and more.

As of 2005, FIRST includes more than 1000 teams (around 20,000 students) competing in 31 Regional Competitions, as well as one championship competition held in Atlanta, Georgia.

Although FIRST encourages teams to compete robustly against one another for numerous awards and success in the arena, the organization bestows its highest honor, the Chairman's Award, on teams that best exemplify the FIRST ethos of "gracious professionalism". According to the 2004 FIRST Team Manual "...one of the most straightforward interpretations of gracious professionalism is that we learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process. We try to avoid leaving anyone feeling like they are losers. No chest thumping barbarian tough talk, but no sticky sweet platitudes either. Knowledge, pride and empathy comfortably blended..." FIRST teams tend to take this paradigm to heart, and, as many observers have noted, even during the fiercest of competitions rivals can often be seen complimenting or offering technical assistance to each other. In order to win the Chairman's Award, teams are expected to apply "gracious professionalism" outside the competition by participating in community service activities which further FIRST's mission of changing student's perspectives about science and technology.

Competition details

The competition is a yearly event. The most intense participation occurs in the first few months of the year, although on many teams activities occur continuously throughout the academic year. 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 size of the robot staying the same.

For the next six weeks, often called the "build season," the teams begin to design a robot to play the game, essentially from scratch. This period's intensity makes FIRST the program that it is, and gives it personality. 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. Often, mistakes are discovered late into the build season, and teams must start over close to the beginning. Other challenges include gaining driver experience, building the electronics for the robot, and programming it. After the build season has ended, teams must ship their robot to where their first competition is.

Competitions for FIRST consist of many (about 30) regional competitions, and one championship event. Regionals typically involve around 40 - 65 teams. Teams are randomly paired into qualification matches, where they are ranked. Matches are relatively short, and only involve about 4 robots (depending on the game). The game changes every year, but for the most part, they involve some autonomous (computer controlled) robot operation for a short period of time at the beginning of a match, followed by a much longer period of remote control. Teams use scoring objects on the field to get points, which are evaluated only after the match has completely ended. In between matches, teams spend the time desperately trying to fix broken parts, and sometimes even add new ones right at competition. After the qualification matches have ended, the top 8 teams will pick partners from the remaining ones, and they resulting alliances will compete for a regional winner. The championship event is esentially a very large regional event, with four fields simultaneously playing matches. Teams must qualify through a number of means to be able to attend the championship.

FIRST is not just about building a good robot. The intense working conditions, and hard-earned wins build families out of teams, and an important part of the competition is to ensure that good work ethics and gracious professionalism are kept throughout the competition. In fact, of the awards handed out at regionals and the championship, the most important ones deal not with who had the best robot, but who did the best job of spreading the message of FIRST.

Source: Wikipedia