What is FIRST Robotics?
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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.
In FIRST Robotics, students have the opportunity
to:
- 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. |
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