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FRC for Starters
This page will serve as a quick run down on what FRC is, what to expect once the robot building starts, what will you learn, and more. It will also give you a quick explanation of the team so you are all caught up.
FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a nonprofit organization that was founded by Dean Kamen in 1989. FIRST was created to get students from grades K-12 involved in STEM and get students excited about it. FIRST is made up of three different programs:
Students from all three programs learn a variety of skills through the different challenges they are faced with. FIRST goes beyond the competition and offers huge scholarship opportunities and internships for FIRST students and for FIRST alumni.
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an annual international robotics competition that takes the excitement of sports and the challenges of STEM to create a competition where students in high schools from all over the world compete. Students who are on a FRC team are presented with a challenge on January 5th and are then given until their first competition to design, build, and program a robot to perform tasks that will earn the team points. Students also work on nontechnical tasks such as getting sponsorships, graphic design, and social media. The students on FRC teams also receive help from mentors and volunteers who use their skills to guide students to help their team succeed.
FRC is broken up into different seasons. They are:
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Preseason: There is no real date for when preseason starts. For our team, our preseason starts around the same time school starts. We spend our preseason trying to get new members, teaching them, and getting them ready for the build season.
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Build season: Unlike the preseason, Build season does have a start date. Build Season starts on January 5th. This date is also known as kickoff. Kickoff is when every FRC team watches a live stream that reveals what the game for the year will be. Build season does not have an official end. Build season used to end 6 weeks after January 5th. At the end, teams would have put their robot in a big plastic bag, and were not allowed to work on the robot until their first competition. This was called Bag day. FIRST did removed bag day for the 2020 season. This means build season ends the day before your first competition.
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Competition season: Competition season can be described as a series of weeks where FRC competitions take place.
All teams have two competitions that they compete in. In the New England district, if your team does well in those two competitions and ranks into the top 64 your team goes to the New England District Championship. If your team does well and gets into the top 33, your team goes to Worlds Championship, which takes place in Detroit, Michigan. If your team does not advance past your first two competitions, your competition season is basically over. However, you can still get involved and watch matches on NE FIRST's twitch or FIRST's twitch. Our team may have few meeting during this time if we do not advance. -
Off-Season: Off-season can be described as the time between the end of competition season for everyone and preseason. The competition season ends for everyone when the last Worlds Championship ends. There are two Worlds Championship in FIRST: one in Houston, Texas and one in Detroit, Michigan. During the off-season there are off-season competitions. These off-season competitions are just for fun, they do not count in ranking.
Our team was founded in 2015. We are a team composed of students in Somerville High School from grades 7-12, as well as multiple mentors and a team alumni who provide guidance and support.
Our team number is 6201 because FIRST assigns a team number to teams when they first register. The numbers are given in numerical order. When FRC first started, the first team was given the team number 1, then the second team was given the team number 2 and so on. We were the 6,201 team to register so we were assigned the team number 6201. However, this doesn't mean that there are over 6,201 teams in FRC. It just means there are over 6,201 teams who registered. There are some teams that have ended years ago. As of 2020, there are 3,898 active teams
Our team name is The Highlanders because that is the name the team picked when the team first stared in 2015.
Our team has a website, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Following us on these platforms is not needed, however it is nice to familiarize yourself with these so you know what information to give people if they would like to know more about our team. You can also learn more about the team but looking at the team's Blue Alliance page.
There are many different things you can do in 6201. You can get into the technical parts of FRC which include programming, building, using CAD, electronics, etc. You can also get into the nontechnical parts of FRC which include outreach, awards, getting sponsors, etc. The team divided these different parts of FRC into subteams, which are all equally importance. The subteams are as followed:
- Software: Programs the robot
- Hardware: Builds, CADs, and wires the robot. This subteam is Electrical and mechanical combined
- Strategy: Create strategies during the competition, scouting, drive team, etc.
- Outreach: Finds sponsors for the team, helps the team win award during competitions
If you noticed, Safety is not a subteam. However there is a role, that is recognized and created by FIRST, on the team called a safety captain which makes sure everyone is being safe during the build season and during the competitions. More Information about the safety captain role can be found here on the safety page.
Learning how to program or build a robot, or how to get sponsors may sound like a big, scary task but it's not. We will teach you everything that you need to know! FRC is a learning experience where we all learn together.
This wiki has a lot of resources to help you learn as well. You can find them on the following pages:
Software just another name for programming. This page will cover everything you need to know to get started. If you have never programmed before, we recommend going to codecademy and learn Java. Java is the programming language our team uses to program the robot. If you are confused, that's okay! We will teach everything you need to know before the season starts.
Our team has combined Electrical and mechanical into one subteam which we call Hardware. Even though we combined the two, that does not mean it's more difficult. They are combined because they have a lot in common. This page has resources for beginners. Reading the resources and tutorials might not sound like the most fun thing to do, but it will help you gain a basic knowledge.
Strategy can be figuring out what is the best robot to build in order to score the most point. It can also be figuring out match strategies during the competition, scouting and more. This page mainly explains how strategy is applied to the build season and to the competition season.
Outreach is getting sponsors, and getting awards for the team. This subteam may seem small but it is very important. Sponsors help the team continue and grow, and awards help the team advance to the next level of competitions.
There are a lot of acronyms that are commonly used in the FIRST and FRC community. This can get confusing to those who are new to FRC. The following below explains what these acronyms are and what do they mean.
FIRST: FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition for Science and Technology.
FLL, FTC, FRC
- FLL stands for FIRST Lego League
- FTC stands for FIRST Tech Challenge
- FRC stands for FIRST Robotics Competition
GP: GP stands for Gracious Professionalism. Gracious Professionalism is part of the ethos of FIRST. According to the FIRST website, "It’s a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community."
TBA: TBA stands for The Blue Alliance. It is a website for finding team information and match videos and results for FRC. The Blue Alliance is an app for Apple and Android devices as well. It is very helpful to have this downloaded on your phone since The Blue Alliance also contains match schedules.
NE and NE FIRST: NE stands for New England. NE FIRST stands for New England FIRST. Our team is in the NE FIRST district along with the other states in the New England region.
DCMP: DCMP stands for District Championship. NE DCMP stands for New England District Championship.