FIRST Robotics Competition Blog

Safety, a Shopping List, and FIRST Championship Allocations for Districts 

Dec 19, 2019 Written by Frank Merrick.

 

Safety, Safety, Safety

We’ve said it hundreds of times before: Nothing you are doing in FIRST is worth getting hurt over. With the start of the build season just a few weeks away (yikes!), the time for thinking about safety is now. The Safety Manual has been updated for the 2020 season with help from our friends at UL. The manual can be also be downloaded from the Safety Page. We urge all teams to download and review the manual. Also, please take a couple of minutes to review your build areas for any potential safety hazards. Ensure your tools are in good order and that you have personal protective equipment (PPE) available for all members. Just a few minutes of prep can prevent an accident!  

Shopping List

You wanted it, you got it (again). You can find the list of materials you will need to build the Team Elements of the field for the INFINITE RECHARGE season here. Please read the document carefully, especially the difference between the Half Field List and the Minimal Field List. Teams will vary in what elements they feel they will want to build for their own use after they see the game and consider their strategy. As noted in the document, if money is especially tight, you may want to wait until after kickoff before you make purchase decisions so you don’t end up buying raw material you don’t use.

FIRST Championship Allocations for Districts

Last week we took a snapshot of the counts of teams that had secured (paid) their registration fees and ran it through a ginormous spreadsheet to determine FIRST Championship allocations for 2020. Here you go:

FIRST Robotics Competition District

FIRST Championship Location

FIRST Championship Slots

FIRST in Texas

Houston

37

FIRST Israel

Houston

13

FIRST North Carolina

Houston

14

Pacific Northwest

Houston

28

Peachtree

Houston

16

FIRST Chesapeake

Detroit

20

FIRST in Michigan

Detroit

90

FIRST Mid-Atlantic

Detroit

21

Indiana FIRST

Detroit

10

NE FIRST

Detroit

33

Ontario

Detroit

27

If you are celebrating any holidays next week, I hope you have a great one!

Frank

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Comments

Submitted by Allen Gregory (not verified) on Thu, 12/19/2019 - 11:40pm

The 2020 Safety Manual says "Be ready to share your team safety program to Judges and/or UL Safety Advisors at the event for consideration for the Safety Award, Sponsored by UL." This was discussed partially in the previous blog post about judging. 

Can you elaborate as to how much the safety advisors and judges will be collaborating or how that collaboration will be presented to teams? Will the Judges only be involved with the award at some events? Will the judges and safety advisors be coming to interview teams together? Will a teams performance for the Safety Award effect their performance for any other award? Will the safety advisors be involved with deliberations for any other awards if they are working with the judges?

Submitted by fhanlon on Fri, 12/20/2019 - 10:38am

Thanks for all of these great questions! More info around this will be released in mid-January. If that additional information does not answer all of your questions, please re-submit your questions.

Thanks,
Fiona Hanlon 
FRC Program Specialist

Submitted by Ryan Davitt (not verified) on Mon, 12/23/2019 - 1:45pm
It seems that there might be an error in the shopping list. There's a total of 34 1/4 Tee Nut listed in the shopping list, but there's only 10 1/4 bolts listed. Is this correct or an error?

Submitted by Jamee Luce on Thu, 01/02/2020 - 8:30am

Hi Ryan.

Yes! That was our mistake. Thanks for pointing it out to us! We have updated the parts list. Please see this blog for more details.

Thanks!

Jamee Luce

Team Advocate, FIRST Robotics Competition

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