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FRC for Starters
Hello! Welcome to the FIRST Robotics Competition, also known as FRC. This page will serve as a quick run down on what is FRC, what to expect, what you should learn, and what FRC is like. This page will also give you a quick explanation of the team so you are all caught up.
There are a lot of acronyms that are commonly used in the FRC community and it can get confusing to new members. The following below explains what these acronyms are and what do they mean.
FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recgonization for Science and Technology. FIRST is the name of the orginaztion that runs the program. You can learn more about FIRST on the team's website, or from FIRST's website
FRC stands for FIRST Robotics Competition. It is what you are competing in! You can find out more info here
FTC stands for FIRST Tech Challenge. You can find out more info here
FLL and FLLjr. FLL stands for FIRST Lego League. You can find out more info here
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 stands for The Blue Alliance. It is a website for Team information and match videos and results from the FIRST Robotics Competition. It is an app for apple and android as well, it is very helpful to have this downloaded on your phone. Sometimes The Blue Alliance is called "Blue Alliance"
NE stands for New England. Which means 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 stands for District Championship.
To break up the name:
FRC = FIRST Robotics Competition
6201 = FIRST assigns a team number to teams when they first register the team. The numbers are given in numerical order. So the first team to sign up is team 1, the second is team 2, and so on. We were the 6,201 team to register . 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.
The Highlanders = That's our team name. The team picked its name in 2016 when we first started.
Our team has awebsite, Twitter, Instagram, and facebook. Following us on these platforms isn't 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.
We use a free website/app called Slack to have conversations about the team and robot. It is highly recommended that you either download the app and turn notifications on. There is a lot of important information is given on Slack. You can also ask questions or bring up ideas if you have any throughout the season. If you don't have access to a phone, that's okay. Slack is a website as well so you can check Slack from a laptop or computer. You will get the link to join slack from a mentor during the preseason.
There are many different things you can do on a FRC team. 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. We have broken down all these topics into subteams. The subteams are as followed:
- Software/programming: Programs the robot
- Hardware: Builds, CADs, and wires the robot
- Outreach: Finds sponsors for the team, helps the team win award during competitions
- Strategy: Create strategies during the match, talks to other teams to create these strategies, scouting, drive team, etc.
Mentors are adults or alums who help the student. They do not build the whole robot for students,they are resources to help guide students and teach them. If you have any questions or concerns, a mentor is a great person to bring those questions or concerns to.
FRC is broken up into different seasons. They are:
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Preseason: There is no real date for when preseason starts. For 6201, our preseason starts around the same time school starts. We spend our preseason trying to get new members, teaching new members, and getting them ready for the build season
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Build season: Build season does have a start date. Build Season starts on January 5th. This date is also known as kickoff. Kickoff is where every FRC team watches a live stream on Twitch and we all learn what the game is. Build season does not have an official end anymore. Build season used to end 6 weeks after January 5th. At the end teams would put their robot in a big plastic bag and were not allowed to work on the robot anymore. This was called Bag day. However in 2020, FIRST removed this. This means build season ends the day before your competition.
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Competition season: Competition season starts the day of your first competition. All teams have two competitions that they compete in. In NE, if your team does well in those two competitions and ranks into the top 64 your team goes to the NE DCMP. If your team does well and gets into the top 33, your team goes to Worlds Championship. 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.
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Off-Season: Off season is commonly known as the time between the end of competition season for everyone. 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, some teams do fun projects, etc. Off-season ends when preseasons starts.
Learning programming, building, or getting 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.
If you would like to get a head start on learning, this wiki has a lot of resources for you to do so. 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. It's the programming language our team uses. If you are confused, that's okay we will teach you 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 doesn't mean it's more confusing. 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.
Outreach is getting sponsors, and getting awards for the team. More info will be here soon