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 .
30-654: Half-Pipe Hustle was the first official FIRST Vex Challenge (FVC) game, taking place in 2005–2006. In this challenge, robotics teams built robots from the Vex design kit to compete in competitions across the United States and in other nations, in matches consisting of a 45-second autonomous period, followed by a 2-minute driver control period in which the robots are controlled by team drivers using remote controls. The teams were put into two-team alliances, with two alliances competing against each other in each match, one being
60-766: A 1/3 scale FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar . 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
90-538: A color sensor and other upgrades. The third-generation EV3 was released in September 2013. The kit's main component is the NXT Intelligent Brick computer, which can accept input from up to four sensors and control up to three motors with a modified version of RJ12 cables (similar to, but incompatible with, RJ11 phone lines). The plastic pin to hold the cable in the socket is moved slightly to
120-582: 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. In 2020, FTC replaced the Android phones with a Rev Robotics Control Hub and kept one of
150-401: A triangular high goal was present at the center of the field. From the three sides, thin eighteen-inch square platforms extended. In the autonomous period, there were four platforms and the center goal was square and divided into quadrants, with the walls at 45° angles to the field's walls. Also, the field was divided by wooden walls into quadrants. White lines of tape were placed on the field for
180-646: A visual programming language for writing simple programs and downloading them to the NXT Brick; instead of requiring users to write lines of code, they can use flowchart-like blocks to design their program. The Lego Mindstorms NXT base kit includes: Other parts may be bought separately. Third-party companies manufacture sensors such as a compass , gyroscope , infrared tracker, RFID reader and accelerometer sensors sold by Lego. The temperature sensor can measure in Celsius or Fahrenheit. Sensors are connected to
210-524: Is done through a multitude of ways such as team presentations, pit interviews, judges reading teams' portfolios, etc. Every year, in September, FIRST announces the game challenge to FTC teams at Kickoff. Qualifying Tournaments and Regional & State Championships occur from October through March. Teams are allowed to register for three Qualifying Tournaments. Some states, such as New Jersey, hold league meets that are more similar to sporting events. They are smaller and occur more often. For teams advancing from
240-552: Is left behind. Official FTC events are Qualifying or Championship Tournaments ; unofficial events are Scrimmage Tournaments . Based on their performance in their Regional/State Championships (US) teams were invited to one of the World Championship based on predetermined advancement criteria. Winners of Qualifying Tournaments are invited to Championship Tournaments and until 2017-18 winners of Championship tournaments were then invited to Super-Regional Tournaments. After
270-413: Is supplied by 6 AA batteries (1.5 V each) in the consumer version of the kit, and a rechargeable Li-Ion battery in the educational version. The brick is compatible with sensors and motors of its successor Lego Mindstorms EV3 . Lego has released open source firmware for the NXT Intelligent Brick and schematics for all hardware components. Several developer kits are available with documentation for
300-549: The Robotics Invention System , the first-generation Lego Mindstorms kit. The base kit ships in two versions: the retail version and the education base set. It comes with the NXT-G programming software or the optional LabVIEW for Lego Mindstorms. A variety of unofficial languages exist, such as NXC, NBC, leJOS NXJ, and RobotC. A second-generation set, Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0, was released on August 1, 2009, with
330-456: The 2021-2022 season and onwards, only 1 World Championship is held in Houston. Teams advance from one level of competition to the next based on the advancement criteria laid out in the first part of that year's Game Manual. The Advancement criteria were changed for the 2015–2016 season to add criteria 7 "Winning Alliance, 2nd Team selected" and 13 "Finalist Alliance, 2nd Team selected," shifting
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#1732791414495360-471: The Inspire Award, are given higher priority for advancement to the next level of competition. Optional awards are not given at every competition and do not increase a team’s chances to advance. In the past, the challenges have been based on several different themes: Lego Mindstorms NXT Lego Mindstorms NXT is a programmable robotics kit released by Lego on August 2, 2006. It replaced
390-560: The NXT brick with a six-position modular connector with analog and digital interfaces. The analog interface is backward-compatible (using an adapter) with the older Robotics Invention System. The digital interface is capable of I C and RS-485 communication. Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 is the second set in the Lego Mindstorms series, introduced on August 5, 2009, at the Lego Shop in the U.S. The set contains 619 pieces, including
420-634: The NXT: Simple programs can be created using the menu on the NXT Intelligent Brick. More complicated programs and sound files can be downloaded with a USB port or Bluetooth. Files can be copied wirelessly between two NXT bricks, and some mobile phones can be used as a remote control. Up to three NXT bricks can communicate simultaneously via Bluetooth when user-created programs are run. The kit's retail version includes software for writing programs that run on Windows and Mac OS personal computers. The software, based on National Instruments LabVIEW , provides
450-626: The United States, from the 2013-14 through the 2017–18 seasons, four Super-Regional Championship Tournaments have been held from March through early April, with the World Championships occurring in late April. Starting with the 2018-19 FTC season , the Super Regional Championships will no longer occur and teams will advance from their local championships directly to one of the formerly two World Championships in Houston or formerly Detroit. On competition days,
480-533: The autonomous period to allow for strategic line following by the robots. The competition robots could not exceed 18" in width or length, or 12" in height. The teams were not allowed to introduce a new robot into the game during any time of the match. No two identical robots were allowed on the match. Upon entering the match, all robots had to pass an inspection, and if modified immensely, must be reinspected. The robots could only contain Vex parts, or other, specially allowed parts, and could not be potentially damaging to
510-518: The awards, and at the awards ceremony, judges present the awards. Winner and finalist teams with awards such as the Inspire Award can advance depending on the number of allowed advancements by the qualifier. The core value that FIRST Tech Challenge promotes is embodied in the phrase " Gracious Professionalism ." Showing gracious professionalism can be done in many ways, from helping another team, to simply having fun at competitions. It means making sure every team has an equal opportunity, and that no one
540-586: 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. The pilot season brought together over 130 teams to compete in 6 regional tournaments in
570-425: The foam field floor, two lines of blue and two lines of red racquetballs were arranged. Mounted on the walls closest to the teams' operators were four ball dispensers, each with 15 balls. Dispensers with like-colored balls were placed on opposite sides of the field, as were the lines of balls. Corner goals were placed at the corners of the field, with three-inch walls to hold racquetballs. In the operator control period,
600-421: The judges give at the end of competition day. Teams are required to submit an engineering notebook and/or engineering portfolio in order to be considered for all judged awards. Before matches begin, teams are required to do a formal interview with the judges. Throughout the day, judges can and will observe the matches and conduct pit interviews with teams. After the end of matches, judges deliberate and discuss about
630-477: The match, also known as the autonomous period. Then, the 2 minute driver controlled period starts and the match is completely driver-controlled from then on. In the final 30 seconds of the match, drivers attempt to park in a point scoring zone and/or complete tasks that can only be done in the end game period of the match. The winning alliance receives two qualifying points while the losing alliance receives zero. Besides matches, teams can advance through awards, which
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#1732791414495660-415: The number of matches varies based on the number of teams competing. Matches are completely random in their order and alliances. For the matches, teams are assigned to either red alliance or blue alliance, with each alliance consisting of two teams. All parties involved in the match must choose their programs before the match begins. Drivers must not touch the gamepad controllers during the first 30 seconds of
690-560: 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 . Advancement from one level of competition to another in FIRST Tech Challenge can be achieved by either winning on the field (50%) or by winning the awards listed below during judging (50%). Judging at competitions
720-513: The playing field, other robots, or the players. During the autonomous period, it was possible for each team to earn a total of 60 points. During the operator control period, each alliance could earn a total of 90 points. To be parked on a white platform, a robot could not be touching the field's foam mats. To "own" a goal, a team or alliance needed to have more of its color balls than its opponents' in that goal. FIRST Vex Challenge The competition consists of local and regional qualifiers and
750-439: The red alliance, and the other the blue alliance. During the autonomous period, teams' robots competed for 45 seconds without operator control, relying only upon sensor input and programming to score points. The 8' x 12' competition field consisted of a wooden ramp at either end of the field, forming a rough half-pipe shape. The team members stood at either end of the field. The main playing elements were blue and red racquetballs. On
780-422: The right. The brick has a 100×64 pixel monochrome LCD and four buttons that can navigate a user interface with hierarchical menus. It has a 32-bit ARM7TDMI -core Atmel AT91SAM7 S256 microcontroller with 256 KB of FLASH memory and 64 KB of RAM, an 8-bit Atmel AVR ATmega48 microcontroller, and Bluetooth support. The kit has a speaker , and can play sound files at sampling rates up to 8 kHz. Power
810-467: The successive criteria down one position. In addition to the Winning and Finalist Alliances receiving recognition for their field performance; the following list includes awards presented at official Championship and Qualifying Tournaments based on judging criterion including engineering notebook, team interview, observation, and/or field performance, etc: Award winners and finalists, especially those of
840-601: The winning alliances of the two championships were declared, they were invited to participate in the Festival of Champions in Manchester, New Hampshire to determine the FTC World Champion. On January 10, 2018, FTC announced that Super-Regionals will be abolished after the 2017–2018 season. Due to this, the number of FTC teams that attend each World Championship was increased from 128 to 160 starting in 2019. In
870-494: 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
900-553: 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. The FIRST Tech Challenge grew out of
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