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About First and FRC |
FIRST
FIRST was created by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter, and has steadily grown in size since its first year in 1992. FIRST was created to give students an opportunity to learn about engineering through experience while being guided by adult mentors. Each year, from the kickoff in January to the ship date in February, teams have slightly over 6 weeks to design and build a robot that can play the game announced at the kickoff.
Last year's game, FIRST Lunacy, simulated the low-gravity conditions on the moon by limiting the traction robots have with the playing surface. The robots, in alliances of three robots each, attempted to shoot hollow balls known as Moon Rocks, Empty Cells, and Super Cells into trailers towed by the robots on the opposing alliance. Although the initial 15-second period of the game was fully autonomous, human pilots controlled the robots for the final 2 minutes of the match.
Gracious Professionalism
Despite the competitive atmosphere, there has always been a strong emphasis on "Gracious Professionalism" in FIRST. While hard to define, the concept is similar to that of sportsmanship—we are asked to do our best in the competition by building a superior robot, not by doing anything that might damage the work of other teams.