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FIRST Tech Challenge
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), formerly known as FIRST TECH 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 3 major robotics programs organized by FIRST, which its other 2 programs include FIRST Lego League, and FIRST Robotics Competition.
The competition consists of local qualifiers, regional championships 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 championships, and from that point, regional championships 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 created with Blockly, 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 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[citation needed] in 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 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 the phones to use for a wireless connection between one or two Logitech or Xbox (Windows compatible) controllers and the control hub. The FTC championship was cancelled that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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FIRST Tech Challenge
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), formerly known as FIRST TECH 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 3 major robotics programs organized by FIRST, which its other 2 programs include FIRST Lego League, and FIRST Robotics Competition.
The competition consists of local qualifiers, regional championships 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 championships, and from that point, regional championships 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 created with Blockly, 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 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[citation needed] in 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 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 the phones to use for a wireless connection between one or two Logitech or Xbox (Windows compatible) controllers and the control hub. The FTC championship was cancelled that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.