FIRST Robotics Competition Game & Season Info - Every season starts on this FIRST web page with the Teaser released at the end of the previous season. The teaser provides the theme for the next season. It helps the Marketing team get inspired about banners, buttons, t-shirts, etc.. It also gets everyone thinking about the next game and trying to guess what kind of Robot to build. The Chief Delphi Portal is an excellent blog site to brainstorm with the FIRST community on something as vague as the Teaser or as specific as the Java code to use a specific sensor.

The 1st Saturday in January the Game is released and the team will attend the Kickoff event

• The Encrypted Game Season Manual will be released for download sometime in December then at noon on Kickoff the encryption Code will be released.Every team member will be asked to study this manual, you may be asked to become an expert on a specific section of the manual based on your position on the team.
• The Game and Season Materials will be updated with all the new rules including complete drawings of field elements with dimensions in CAD and printable formats.
• The TechnoDogs will have 6 weeks to design, test and build a competition Robot, that will be sealed in a bag until our first scheduled competition. We will also build an identical second practice robot.
• Other team members will be constructing play field elements.
• The Robot Inspection Checklist must be complete to compete at FRC events.

The 3rd Tuesday in February is Stop Build Day At 11:59pm the competition Robot will be placed in a large plastic bag and a special FRC seal will be used to close the bag until our 1st scheduled competition normally in early March.

The best way to learn the requirements for building an FRC robot is to read last years Game Season Manual

• Read the Game Rules to figure out the Functions required
• Read the Robot Rules to find out about Constraints; weight, size, cost, etc..
• The Game Rules will vary wildly season to season but the Robot Rules are fairly consistent year to year.
• The Manual must be read thoroughly and fully understood so any new Robot rules are considered.
• The final piece of the puzzle is the field elements and game pieces
• Understanding the Physics of the playing environment is critical especially Handling the Game Piece's or Navigating the Field

Now that you fully understand the Functions, Constraints and Physics you are ready to design, build and test a Robot .

The best way to start a project like this is sequentially; design, build and test. But the best way to learn is to start with the control system

The WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE is a great resource for learning The Control System

1. To start we will look at the hardware and the block diagram
2. Wiring the System
3. FRC Driver Station and Dashboard
4. Then how to install the software and communications
5. Finally setting up the programming environment

Section 1-3 of this training is a prerequisite for Design, Fabrication, Construction, Programming and Testing training. Other prerequisites include but are not limited to Safety (SP2) and other fundamental instruction to qualify to use shop tools and computer systems. Most of this learning will be done with hands on instruction using the demo and prototyping robots