A popular pastime at all FIRST events is to gather buttons from each team. Davy now has about 500 buttons, and has them all proudly displayed on a (very heavy) shirt.

As you know, my sons are involved with FIRST Robotics. In fact, I would go so far as to say that our lives are nearly consumed with robotics. Robotics this, robotics that. Robotics here, there, and everywhere.  Over the past few years, I’ve gotten several questions from people about how this works – what do the kids do? What do the robots do? How does it all work? Here, I will attempt to answer those questions.

What is FIRST Robotics?

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics is an international organization designed to inspire kids to pursue careers in the science and technology fields. Founded by Dean Kamen in 1989, FIRST is now celebrating 26 years of robots. There are now approximately 4000 teams around the world.

FIRST has several programs for kids of all ages. FIRST Lego League (FLL) is appropriate for elementary kids. FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is for middle and high school kids, and FRC is also middle and high school. My kids are involved with FRC.

What happens in a given year?

Kickoff Day is a big day for FIRST kids – it’s the day they find out what their new challenge is. The first Saturday in January, kids around the world gather in front of a computer tuned in to the NASA channel, where they’ll find out what their robot needs to do this year.

Every year, kids build a robot to play a new game. Unlike football or basketball where the game is constant and the rules never change, in FIRST Robotics, a new game is created every year. The rules and specs are very carefully defined, and teams must strictly adhere to them or they’ll be disqualified. Here are a few games from previous years to give you an idea of how the games vary.

In 2011, robots scored by picking plastic tubes (in three different shapes) off the floor and stacking them on poles.

In 2012, teams scored points by getting basketballs through a net. They got additional points if they could get 2 or 3 robots balanced on a bridge at the end of the match.

2013’s game involved throwing frisbees through a window to score. Additional points could be scored if your robot could climb the pyramid – the higher it went, the more points it scored!

This game from 2014 involved passing large therapy balls from one robot to the next before finally being thrown through a window to score.

This year’s challenge is to stack totes, and balance the big green trash cans on top. Totes are worth 2 points each – unless they have the trash can, which makes them worth 6 points each.

Once kids know what their robot has to do this year, they get to work. They have six weeks to design, build, and program their robot – which is lightning fast. At the end of the six weeks, the robots need to be bagged and tagged – quite literally put in a large plastic bag and sealed shut. This day is referred to as Bag Day.

In order to get their robots built, teams spend a LOT of time at the shop!

The next time kids can touch their robot is at a competition – I’ve explained how competitions work below.

I should add here that many teams build two identical robots – a comp bot (competition robot) and a practice bot. After the comp bot has been bagged, the team continues working with the practice bot, then whatever changes are made are quickly installed on the comp bot at the competition venue.

What happens at competition?

First and foremost, teams compete – they do not fight. Many people have seen Robot Wars, so assume these robots get on the field and fight – nothing could be farther from the truth. Robots compete, much as basketball or football players compete.

Three robots work together as a team to compete against another alliance of three robots. There is a blue alliance, with all the robots on that ‘team’ wearing blue bumpers, and a red alliance where all three robots wear red bumpers. Just as in football where one player is quarterback and another is wide receiver, different robots take on different roles. This is all decided between the teams playing together.

• Historically, matches have been 2 ½ minutes each, but that could quite easily change if the powers-that-be at FIRST headquarters decided to change it.
• Historically, the first 15 seconds of each match is the autonomous phase (auto), where robots are completely preprogrammed to do something.
• After the auto period, drivers step up to the remote control station and take control of the robots. Robots are tele-operated for the remainder of the match (teleop).

This is a typical competition field. It will be set up differently every year, depending on the game.

There are three distinct parts of a competition – a practice phase, qualifying phase, and elimination phase.

Practice phase: The day before the competition actually starts, teams are allowed to take their robots out of the bags and work on them. All changes that were made are quickly installed into the comp bot and updates to programming are put in. Throughout the day, bots are scheduled for practice matches, which gives teams a chance to see if their changes are working correctly.

Qualifying phase: During the qualifying phase (quals), robots are randomly paired up with two other robots into an alliance. They play about ten matches (varies depending on how many robots are at that particular competition), and the top eight bots then get to choose their alliance partners for the next phase of the competition.

Elimination phase: We now have 24 robots entering into the elimination phase of the competition – 8 alliances with three robots in each alliance. Just as in other sports, the alliances will play in the semi-finals. Winners go on to semi-finals, and then the winners progress to the finals.

And then what?

The winning alliance (all three robots) at the regional events get an invitation to compete at the world championships. This year (2015), there are 600 teams going to St. Louis for this event.

Teams are randomly assigned to one of eight fields (Galileo, Archimedes, Tesla, Curie, etc…), and those 75 bots will go through the qualifying process, then to the elimination phase. At that point, we have one winning alliance from each of the eight fields. These alliances is referred to as the Field Champs.

Those eight alliances now move to Einstein Field, where they play quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals. The winners of Einstein are the official world champions.

How much does it cost?

A lot. Teams handle this aspect differently, so I can’t say anything specific here. The base fee, which provides a basic kit of parts and allows for entrance into one competition, is about $5000. If a team chooses to attend a second competition, it’s  another $4000. If they make it to the world championship, that’s about $9000. That’s just the entrance fee.

The kit of parts is not a complete kit. It’s a good starting point for beginner teams, but more competitive teams won’t use much from the kit. All expenses for buying materials/machining parts/etc must be borne by the team. Teams can spend up to $3000 to build their robot.

These expenses are typically covered through grants. Some teams have a dedicated grant-writing sub-team trying to round up money. We figure it costs a minimum of $20,000 to build our bot and compete in two regional competitions and the world finals.

All transport expenses and hotel/food costs are on top of that. With our team (#2122), parents pay all those for their child. Other teams handle it differently.