FIRST Robotics Competition

The first program developed through FIRST was the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), which is designed to inspire high school students about career opportunities by giving them real world experiences working with professionals. Each year FRC introduces a new game as a challenge for the students and mentors to develop strategies and a robot for playing the game. There is much more to FRC than building a robot and playing a game.

Details of the game are released at the beginning of January, and the teams are given six weeks to construct a competitive robot that can accomplish the game's tasks. The robots weigh around 120 pounds (depending on the current year's rules). The teams are limited to a set budget each year that they have to maintain. The purpose of this rule is to prevent well-funded teams from outspending "funding-challenged" teams. The competition challenge changes each year, and the teams cannot reuse components created for previous robots.

Facts about FRC

• 2,500+ teams
• 51,000 high-school students
• Teams from 48 states in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Herzegovina, Israel, Mexico, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the U.K
• 58 Regional events in the U.S., Canada, and Israel; 17 District competitions, one Region Championship and one State Championship in Michigan
• FIRST Robotics Competition Championship at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO, April 24-27, 2013
• Robots are built in six weeks from a common kit of parts provided by FIRST, and weigh up to 120 lbs. (excluding battery and bumpers)
  
  

Students get to:

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

Information from FIRST website (2012)

2011 Microsoft Seattle Regional. Scoring a red tube to the delight of the
crowd during Logomotion game.