FIRST Robotics Competition - History

History

FIRST was founded in 1989 by inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen, with inspiration and assistance from physicist and MIT professor emeritus Woodie Flowers. Kamen has stated that FIRST is the invention he feels most proud of for creating, and predicts that participants who have taken part in its contests so far will be responsible for some significant technological advances in years to come. The first FRC season was in 1992 and had only one event at a high school gymnasium in New Hampshire. That first competition was relatively small-scale, similar in size to today's FIRST Tech Challenge and Vex Robotics Competition games. In its first year, robots relied on a wired connection to receive data from drivers; in the following year, it quickly transitioned to a wireless system. From 1996 to 1998, the FIRST Championship was covered by ESPN. Live coverage is currently provided by NASA TV, which can be viewed on the internet, TVRO, DirecTV, and Dish Network; the sophistication of the broadcast of each event is dependent on the organizers of that event, and range from professionally called with color commentary, such as the 2011 Michigan State Championship, to single-camera setups with no commentary other than the on-field play caller, which is typical of most events.

Since 2005, the games have been played with two opposing "alliances" each composed of three teams. Prior to 2005, a variety of other formats were used, including 2-team alliances, 4-team alliances and 3 teams competing independently.

The FIRST Championship (and by extension, the FRC championships), which has been held at a large scale venue since 1995, has been held at Epcot Center in Orlando, Reliant Park in Houston, the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, and the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

Over the years, FIRST has attracted the sponsorship of major companies such as Boeing, Microsoft, National Instruments, Google, Texas Instruments, and United Technologies. The main controller on FRC robots is a National Instruments CompactRIO. The 2012 game featured the use of Microsoft Kinect systems.