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FIRST Tech Challenge

FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), formerly known as FIRST Vex Challenge, is a robotics competition for students in grades 7–12 to compete head to head, by designing, building, and programming a robot to compete in an alliance format against other teams. FIRST Tech Challenge is one of the six major robotics programs organized by FIRST, which its other five programs include FIRST Lego League Discover, FIRST Lego League Explore, FIRST Lego League Challenge, FIRST Robotics Competition, and FIRST Global Challenge.

Formerly

FIRST Vex Challenge

Robotics-related games

2004

Dean Kamen
Woodie Flowers

2005

Rachel Moore

International

Houston, US (world level), numerous smaller locations (qualifier and regional levels)

Inspire Award Winner:
United States 12791: Iterative Intentions
Championship Winning Alliance:
Romania 19066: AiCitizens
United States 11212: The Clueless
South Africa 18763: Texpand

NASA TV, Twitch

FIRST Robotics Competition
FIRST Lego League Challenge
FIRST Lego League Explore

FTC

The competition consists of local and regional qualifiers and the world championship, the FIRST Championship, and in every season, a kickoff is held to showcase the season's theme and game. After kickoff, robots are designed, built, and programmed by teams, and teams are encouraged to conduct outreach with their communities. Local qualifiers are held for teams to compete and qualify for regional qualifiers, and from that point, regional qualifiers are held for teams to qualify for the world championship.


The robot kit is Android-based, and it is programmed using Java, Kotlin, the Blocks programming interface, or other Android programming systems. Teams, with the guidance of coaches, mentors and volunteers, are required to develop strategy and build robots based on innovative, sound engineering principles. Awards are given for robot performance as well as for community outreach, design, and other real-world accomplishments.[1]

History[edit]

The FIRST Tech Challenge grew out of the existing FIRST Robotics Competition and the IFI Robovation platform. FIRST, RadioShack, and Innovation First collaborated to develop an improved version of the IFI Robovation kit. The kit was significantly upgraded and called the VEX Robotics Design System.


In 2004–05, FIRST piloted the FIRST Vex Challenge as a potential program.[2] The pilot season brought together over 130 teams to compete in 6 regional tournaments in a 1/3 scale FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar.[3] Fifty teams participated in the FVC tournament at the FIRST Championship in April, 2006. On April 29, 2006, the FIRST Board of Directors voted to extend FVC for the 2006–2007 season.


In Summer 2007, after two seasons as the FIRST Vex Challenge, FIRST announced that the program would be renamed to FIRST Tech Challenge.


For the 2008 season, Pitsco developed a platform that uses the NXT brick along with additional hardware and a new structural framework under the new name of TETRIX. Then, in the 2015-2016 FTC season, the NXT bricks that were used previously as the robot controller were replaced by Android phones running Android KitKat (4.4) using Qualcomm Snapdragon (410) chips.[4]


In 2020, FTC replaced the Android phones with a Rev Robotics Control Hub and kept one of the phones to use for a wireless connection between one and two Logitech or Xbox (Windows compatible) controllers and the control hub. The FTC championship was cancelled that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]

Inspire Award: This award is generally given to teams who achieve greatness in all parts of FIRST including programming, robot design, the portfolio, judging presentations, gracious professionalism, and outreach. This team embodies what it is to be a FIRST robotics team and is a team that others can look up to as a role model. The Inspire Award is the highest ranked award as it embodies all other awards inside of it and allows a direct bid to the next level of competition.

Think Award: The winning team of this award clearly displays their engineering and design process in their engineering notebook. This award honors the team who had an engineering section of their engineering notebook that clearly displayed the mathematics, science, and design process that went into the building of their robot.

Connect Award: This award is granted to the team that most connects to their engineering community outside of FIRST by sharing who they are, what FIRST is, and how others can become involved. On top of that, this team's engineering notebook shows that they have a clear fundraising, business, and outreach plan that they will follow throughout the season.

Innovate Award sponsored by : This award is given to the team with the most innovative and creative robot design. This robot must work in a consistent manner but does not need to perform well in every round to be eligible for this award.

RTX

Design Award: This award focuses on the design aspect of the robot. The team winning this award must show a thoughtful design on their robot that is both functional and aesthetic. The robot must distinguish itself from other competitors by showing off its unique design. This design can be shown both on the competition field and in the engineering notebook through sketches, blueprints, photos, and . CAD helps teams plan and create robots before actually building the robot in person.

computer-aided design (CAD)

Motivate Award: The winning team of this award exemplifies what it means to be a FIRST team. This team works together by showing gracious professionalism at competitions and by recruiting and assisting other teams and members at home.

Control Award sponsored by : This programming centered award commends the team that had the best use of unique programs and successful sensors used in their rounds. This team's engineering notebook must have had a very detailed in explaining their implementation of software, sensors, and mechanical control.

Arm, Inc.

Promote Award: This optional award is given to a team that creates the best 60 second video , based on a prompt given each season. Past prompts include "If there was one thing I would tell my younger self about FIRST it would be...” and "How will you pay FIRST forward?"

public service announcement

Compass Award: This optional award is given to a team that creates a 60 second video recognizing a coach or mentor, and highlights what sets them apart.

Judge’s Choice Award: This optional award is given to a team that the judge’s believe deserve recognition but wouldn’t otherwise qualify for an existing award. The award can be given under a different name depending on the region.

- FIRST Organization

FIRST

FIRST Robotics Competition

FIRST Lego League

FIRST Championship

Official website

Official FIRST website