FIRST Robotics Competition

The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in that year's game that weigh up to 125 pounds (57 kg).[3] Robots complete tasks such as scoring balls into goals, placing inner tubes onto racks, hanging on bars, and balancing robots on balance beams. The game, along with the required set of tasks, changes annually. While teams are given a kit of standard set of parts during the annual Kickoff,[4] they are also allowed and are encouraged to buy or make specialized parts. The FIRST Robotics Competition is one of four robotics competition programs organized by FIRST, the other three being FIRST Lego League Explore, FIRST Lego League Challenge, and the FIRST Tech Challenge.

FIRST Robotics Competition
Current season, competition or edition:
Infinite Recharge (2021)
SportRobotics-related games
FoundedDean Kamen
Woodie Flowers
Inaugural season1992
CommissionerFrank Merrick[1]
Motto"More Than Robots"
No. of teams3,898 (2020)[2]
Countries

FIRST Robotics Competition has a unique culture that is built around two values. "Gracious Professionalism" embraces the competition inherent in the program, but rejects trash talk and chest-thumping, instead embracing empathy and respect for other teams. "Coopertition" emphasizes that teams can cooperate and compete at the same time.[5] The goal of the program is to inspire students to be science and technology leaders.

2020 was the 29th year of the competition. 3,898 teams including more than 97,000 students and 29,000 mentors from 34 countries built robots. The 2020 season was planned to include 66 Regional Competitions, 105 District Qualifying Competitions, and 11 District Championships.[2] In 2019, over 800 teams won slots to attend the two FIRST Championship events, where they competed in a tournament. In addition to on-field competition, teams and team members competed for awards recognizing entrepreneurship, creativity, engineering, industrial design, safety, controls, media, quality, and exemplifying the core values of the program.

Most teams reside in the United States, with Canada, China, Mexico, Israel, Turkey and Australia contributing significant numbers of teams.[2]

History
1992: Maize Craze

FIRST was founded in 1989 by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, with inspiration and assistance from physicist and MIT professor emeritus Woodie Flowers. Kamen was disappointed with the number of kids—particularly women and minorities—who did not consider science and technology careers, and decided to do something about it. As an inventor, he looked for activities that captured the enthusiasm of students, and decided that combining the excitement of sports competition with science and technology had potential.

Distilling what sports had done right into a recipe for engaging young people, Kamen says, turned out to be relatively straightforward. "It's after school, not in school. It's aspirational, not required," he explained to me.

"You don't get quizzes and tests, you go into competitions and get trophies and letters. You don't have teachers, you have coaches. You nurture, you don't judge. You create teamwork between all the participants. We justify sports for teamwork but why, when we do it in the classroom, do we call it cheating?"

Most of all, it was a nonjudgmental space, where in contrast science and math in traditional educational settings had been soured with embarrassment and uncertainty.[6]

Kamen has stated that FIRST is the invention he feels most proud of, and predicts that participants will be responsible for significant technological advances in years to come.[7] The first FIRST Robotics Competition season was in 1992 and had one event at a high school gymnasium in New Hampshire.[8] That first competition was relatively small-scale, similar in size to today's FIRST Tech Challenge and Vex Robotics Competition games. Robots relied on a wired connection to receive data from drivers; in the following year, it quickly transitioned to a wireless system.[9][10]

Teams
A New York City FIRST Robotics Team at a Greater DC Regional with their robot (Hunter College High School-3419)

3,898 teams from 34 countries competed in 2020 Infinite Recharge. Of these, 3,561 are "veteran teams" (meaning they have competed in a previous season), and 337 are "rookie teams" (meaning that 2020 was their first season of competition).[2]

The countries represented are listed below: (in decreasing order of number of teams as of 2020)

Competition
The FIRST Championship was held at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri from 2011 to 2017.

FIRST Championship
Main article: FIRST Championship

The FIRST Championship is the culmination of the FIRST Robotics Competition competition season, and occurs in late April each year. Roughly 800 teams participated in two Championship events in 2018, held in April in Houston, Texas and Detroit, Michigan.[11]

Media exposure

The PBS documentary "Gearing Up" followed four teams through the 2008 season.[12]

In the television series Dean of Invention, Dean Kamen made appeals promoting FIRST prior to commercial breaks.[13]

In 2008, FRC Team 1114, Simbotics, was featured in an ongoing storyline on the hit Canadian TV drama "Degrassi: Next Generation". Team 1114's 2006-2007 world champion VEX robot made an appearance, as well as their 2008 world champion FRC robot.

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 FIRST Robotics Competition in Australia. The crew produced a documentary film called I, Wombot.[14][15] The film premiered during the 2011 Dungog Film Festival.[16][17]

A book called The New Cool was written by Neal Bascomb about the story of Team 1717 from Goleta, California as they competed in the 2009 game season. A movie adaptation directed by Michael Bacall is being produced.[18]

The CNN documentary "Don't Fail Me: Education in America", which aired on May 15, 2011, followed three FIRST Robotics Competition teams during the 2011 season. The documentary profiled one student from each team, covering different geographic and socioeconomic levels: Shaan Patel from Team 1403 Cougar Robotics, Maria Castro from Team 842 Falcon Robotics, and Brian Whited from Team 3675 Eagletrons.[19]

On August 14, 2011, ABC aired a special on FIRST called "i.am FIRST: Science is Rock and Roll"[20] 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 FIRST LEGO League Jr.[21]

From 1996 to 1998, the FIRST Championship was covered by ESPN.[22]

For the 2013 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, five FIRST Robotics Competition teams and their robots led the parade, with one robot cutting the ribbon and the others shooting confetti.[23]

In the 2014 movie Transformers: Age of Extinction, a FIRST Robotics Competition Robot built by Team 2468, Team Appreciate, for the 2012 Season was featured in Cade Yeager's garage shooting the foam basketball game pieces from Rebound Rumble.[24]

The 2015 Kickoff was, for the first time, broadcast by NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast, and was available via OnDemand for the month of January 2015.[25]

In 2016, Christina Li, a member of Team 217, the ThunderChickens, was spotlighted on an episode of Nickelodeon's The Halo Effect entitled "Hello World". A coding camp that Li organized for young girls was featured on the episode, and 217's robot from the 2015 season made an appearance.[26]

The fourth season of The Fosters (2013 TV series) had several episodes featuring characters competing in a regional FIRST Robotics Competition competition, most notably episode 8 "Girl Code".[27]

On June 2018, HBO aired a Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel episode, which in a segment, the correspondent Soledad O'Brien interviewed Dean Kamen about FIRST and FIRST Robotics Competition and then later interviewed students from various FRC teams.[28][29]

The February 25, 2020 episode of the ABC sitcom Black-ish features recurring character, Jack Johnson, joining a FIRST team -- and a cameo by Dean Kamen.[30]

Episode 6 in the second season of the Netflix original series Trinkets featured a FIRST Robotics Competition competition.[31]

Notable people

Employees and volunteers
  • Marc Hodosh, entrepreneur, chairman of the Boston FIRST Robotics Competition competition[32]
  • Mark Leon, NASA researcher and Master of Ceremonies for several FIRST Robotics Competition events[33]

Mentors

Games
FIRST Robotics Competition
  • Intermission during Aim High in Los Angeles, encouraging teams to socialize
  • The 2006 Triplets of 1114, 1503, and 1680. 1114 and 1503 won 3 regionals each, while 1680 won a silver finalist medal and was a quarterfinalist twice.
  • Competition at the 2008 Hawaii regionals.
  • "Barrage", Team 254's 2014 World Champion FRC robot

Notes
  1. 2020's game will be replayed in 2021 due to the cancellation of the 2020 season.

References
  1. Merrick, Frank. "Title Change". firstinspires.org. US FIRST. Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  2. "2020 Season Facts" (PDF). FIRST. January 2, 2020.
  3. "FRC 2019 Game and Season Manual" (PDF). Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  4. "Kit of Parts". FIRST. October 19, 2015. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  5. "Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition". FIRST. Archived from the original on October 27, 2014. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  6. "Robot Love: Inside Dean Kamen's FIRST Championship 2014". SlashGear. Archived from the original on January 30, 2015.
  7. Harris, Mark (June 10, 2010). "Brain scan: Mr Segway's difficult path". The Economist. Archived from the original on June 14, 2010. Retrieved June 11, 2010.
  8. "History - FIRST".
  9. 1992 FIRST Robotics final match. October 6, 2008. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016 – via YouTube.
  10. 1993 US FIRST Robotics "Rug Rage" match. October 8, 2008. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016 – via YouTube.
  11. "2017 & 2018 FIRST Championship Information Update". April 25, 2016. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017.
  12. "What Is Gearing Up?". KETC. Archived from the original on September 17, 2011. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  13. "Behind the Scenes With Dean Kamen on Dean of Invention". Popular Mechanics. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
  14. "Home - FIRST Team 3132 - FIRST Team 3132". FIRST Team 3132. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013.
  15. "I, Wombot (2011)". IMDb. October 1, 2011. Archived from the original on April 6, 2012.
  16. I, Wombot Archived May 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  17. "Newsroom - Macquarie University". www.mq.edu.au. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011.
  18. McCarthy, Erin (April 28, 2012). "Director Michael Bacall on FIRST Robotics Movie The New Cool". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved April 30, 2012.
  19. "Don't Fail Me: Education in America airs Sunday". CNN. Archived from the original on June 10, 2011. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
  20. "THE BLACK EYED PEAS FRONT MAN WILL.I.AM AND INVENTOR/FIRST® FOUNDER DEAN KAMEN TEAM UP FOR A GROUNDBREAKING, ONE-HOUR SPECIAL CELEBRATING EDUCATION, ROBOTICS AND SCIENCE, SUNDAY, AUGUST 14 ON ABC" (PDF). FIRST. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  21. "i.am.FIRST: Science is Rock and Roll FULL HD - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  22. 1996 FIRST Championships ESPN part1. October 8, 2008. Archived from the original on May 16, 2016 – via YouTube.
  23. Canessa, Kevin (November 28, 2013). "Martin County student robotics team kick off Macy's Thanksgiving Parade". WPTV. Archived from the original on November 28, 2013. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  24. Stenglein, Jack (July 16, 2014). "Chap Robotics makes appearance in new Transformers movie". Austin American-Statesman. Archived from the original on January 3, 2015. Retrieved January 3, 2015.
  25. "2015 FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) Kickoff!". Comcast. Archived from the original on January 18, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
  26. https://www.nickpress.com/press-releases/2016/05/13/nickelodeons-the-halo-effect-honors-detroit-teen-christina-li-in-hello-world-premiering-friday-may-20-at-830-p-m-etpt
  27. Merrick, Frank. "FIRST on The Fosters". FIRST inspires: FRC blog. Archived from the original on September 5, 2016. Retrieved September 15, 2016.
  28. Gumbel, Bryant (host); Goldberg, Bernard; Kremer, Andrea; O'Brien, Soledad (June 2018). "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel 255". Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. HBO. Archived from the original on December 7, 2019.
  29. O'Brien, Soledad (June 21, 2018). Dean Kamen’s FIRST Robotics Competition (Full Segment) І Real Sports w/ Bryant Gumbel І HBO – via YouTube.
  30. "You Don't know Jack". ABC. Retrieved April 4, 2020.
  31. "Ocean's 11th Grade". Trinkets. Season 2. Episode 6. August 25, 2020 – via Netflix.
  32. "Subset of famous TED event may settle in Newport - Boston Business Journal". Boston Business Journal. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.
  33. "Spaceward Bound - Mark Leon". quest.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on May 20, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2016.

Sources
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