The Program
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and
Techonolgy) is a non-profit charity that aims to encourage
students to learn in the realm of science, technology, engineering, and
math, as well as to attain the values of gracious professionalism,
self-confidence, communication, and leadership. With these skills,
FIRST aims to instill the skills necessary throughout life, not just
those required to manufacture and build a robot. Through competitions
held within the FIRST program, it is the vision of FIRST "To transform
our culture by creating a world where science and technology are
celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and
technology leaders." To achieve this vision, students design, build,
wire, and code a robot for competition amongst other FIRST teams
throughout the nation and the world, where the goal is not necessary to
win against all others, but to learn from the journey itself.
The Game
Celebrating 20 years of the First Robotics Competition, LogoMotion is
played between six robots divided evenly into two separate alliances.
These alliances attempt to score game pieces, shaped in the forms of
the FIRST logo, onto pegs within their respective alliance scoring
zones. Robots have 2:15 to accomplish this scoring, divided into three
periods. During the Autonomous period, robots must operate
independently of human control for 15 seconds, attempting to score
Ubertubes, which double the point value of any tube placed over it.
Then play enters the Teleoperated period, where robots, now controlled
by two human players, must traverse the length of the field to retrieve
game pieces from corner stations and then return them to the scoring
pegs. A horizontal combination of game pieces resulting in the FIRST
logo results in the doubling of the points for the row.When 10 seconds
remain play enters the Final period where four poles, located in the
center of the field, are used for a Minibot race. Minibots, carried
throughout the match by a host robot are tasked with climbing one of
these poles, with additional scoring based on position in the race.
