USFIRST FIRST

For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

USFIRST

FIRST was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter. FIRST operates the FIRST Robotics Competition in which teams of high school students, sponsored and assisted by local companies and volunteers, design, assemble, and test a robot capable of performing a specified task in competition with other teams. FIRST also runs the FIRST LEGO League, for children 9-14 years old, and FIRST Place, an innovative science and technology center, including a hands-on children's science museum.

FIRST

FIRST The Process

•New game is unvieled

•Game strategy is determined

•Robot concepts are formulated

•Prototypes are constructed

•Design parameters are finalized

Week 1

Week 2-5•Robot construction begins

•Programming starts

•Auxillary builds start

•Playing field details completed

Week 6•Robot is completed

•Robot packaged and shipped

•Short break!

Post-Build•Practice robot completed

•Practice 2-5 times a week

•Prepare for competition

Competition•February, March and April on the road

Self injecting insulin pump

Stair climbing wheelchair

Self balancing personal scooter

DEKA

Over 150 Foreign and US patents

Awarded U.S. National Medal of Technology in 2000

Dean Kamen

Woodie FlowersHe helped create MIT's renowned course "Introduction to Design." Dr. Flowers also received national recognition in his role as host for the PBS television series Scientific American Frontiers from 1990 to 1993 and received a New England EMMY Award for a special PBS program on design. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He recently received The Joel and Ruth Spria Outstanding Design Educator Award from ASME, a Public Service Medal from NASA, and the Tower Medallion from Louisiana Tech University. He is a MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT for extraordinary contributions to undergraduate education. He was also the Inaugural Recipient of the Woodie Flowers Award by FIRST. Currently, Dr. Flowers is a director of two companies. He and his wife Margaret live in Weston, Massachusetts.

FIRST Founding Sponsors

John Abele, Boston Scientific Corporation

Baxter International, Inc.

DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund

Delphi Corporation

General Motors Corporation

Johnson & Johnson

Dean Kamen, DEKA Research and Development Corporation

Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers

Motorola, Inc.

XEROX Corporation

FIRST Hall of Fame

Team 191: X-Cats Xerox & Wilson High School Rochester, NY (1992 & 1994)

Team 151: Wild Cards BAE Systems & Nashua High School Nashua, NH (1995)

Team 47: Chief Delphi Delphi & Pontiac Central High School Pontiac, MI (1997)

Team 120: Scarabian Knights NASA Glenn Research Center/Battelle Memorial Institute/MBNA Foundation/Industrial Technology Institute at Cleveland State University & East Technical High School Cleveland, OH (1999)

The FIRST Hall of Fame recognizes FIRST's exemplary teams and provides them with an avenue for continued, higher-level involvement. A team earns Hall of Fame status by winning the Championship Chairman's Award, FIRST's highest honor. The Hall of Fame is a unique and collaborative effort that features team-created display booths. These booths portray a team's continued support of FIRST, resulting in an innovative and exciting exhibit that inspires and motivates all teams to strive for the excellence associated with the Chairman's Award.

FIRST Hall of Fame

Team 175: Buzz Robotics UTC/Hamilton Sundstrand Space Land & Sea/Techni Products & Enrico Fermi High School Enfield, CT (2002)

Team 103: Cybersonics Amplifier Research/Custom Finishers/Lutron Electronics/BAE Systems/Society for Biomolecular Screening/Day Tool and Manufacturing Inc/Laboratory Robotics Interest Group/Harro Hofliger & Palisades High School Kintnersville, PA (2003)

Team 254: Cheesy Poofs NASA Ames Research Center/Laron Incorporated/Unity Care Group/Line X of San Jose/PK Selective Metal Plating, Inc. & Bellarmine College Preparatory San Jose, CA

Team 16: Baxter Bomb Squad Baxter Healthcare Corporation/Science & Technology Group & Mountain Home Area High Schools Mountain Home, AR (2000)

Team 22: Double Deuce Boeing Rocketdyne/FADAL Engineering/NASA JPL/Delta Hi-Tech & Chatsworth High School & High Tech High Chatsworth, CA (2001)

FIRST Team Growth 1992-2004

1992 28 1995 591996 941997 1511998 1991999 2692000 3722001 5152002 6432003 7872004 900+

YEAR # TEAMSFIRST Teams

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1992199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004

Teams

More Interesting GraphsFIRST Scholarships

$0

$500,000

$1,000,000

$1,500,000

$2,000,000

$2,500,000

$3,000,000

$3,500,000

$4,000,000

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Yearly Percentage Team Growth

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

199319941995199619971998199920002001200220032004

Percent Growth

0100200300400500600700800900

CompetitionsTeamsScaled

•1993: robots on carpet,

•1994: radio control introduced

•1995: moved Nationals to WDW

•1996: Woodie Flowers Award introduced, Human players added

•1997: Beatty/Hammond wins first National Championship of four total

•1998: FIRST village at Epcot, ChiefDelphi discussion board formed, college scholarships

•1999: Alliances, NASA involvement, 3rd partner allowed, Team Forums introduced

•2000: Innovation First controller, score balancing, Dean & Ibot

•2001: 4 vs 0, Championship divisions

•2002: Qualification process for Championships, Chairman’s Award Regional Winner

•2003: Championships in Houston, Scholarships at $3M

•2004: Championships in Atlanta

FIRST Key Points in History

Important Regional TeamsBeatty Hammond – Team 71

•4 Time National Champions

•Use Simple Construction

•Lots of PVC

•Masters of Strategy

•Full One-Piece Frames

Important Regional TeamsTechnokats – Team 45

•Founding Team

•Pioneered Tread Design

•Shifting Transmissions

•AndyMark.biz

•Andy Baker

•`98 Champions

Important Regional TeamsChiefDelphi – Team 47

•Swerve Pioneer

•Incredible Team Spirit

•Dr. Joe Johnson

•ChiefDelphi Forums

•Experts in control

•Dewalt Transmissions

Important Regional TeamsWildstang – Team 111

•Quality

•Complexity

•Do-it-all Strategy

•Raul

•StangSense Auton

•Telescoping Lifts

•Sheet Metal

Important Regional TeamsHotBot – Team 67

•Quality

•Polycarbonate

•Specialization

•Clean Design

•Arm Control

Important Regional Teams

Thunder Chickens – Team 217

Truck Town Thunder – Team 68

Killer Bees – Team 33

Husky Brigade – Team 65

Team Rush History

T

ESP

CE

NITY

PIRIT

EART

Team Rush Mission

Team Rush is committed to improving and fortifying math and science education while offering it’s team members an opportunity to develop a fundamental understanding of respect, team unity, competitive spirit, and the gracious professionalism that is the heart of every successful venture. Team Rush has an uncompromised focus on positive moral values, and uses that focus to reach out to it’s community, create world-class design process’, mold future leaders, build competitive robots, and most importantly…have fun!

Team Rush History1996•Several OSMTech students joint the Brandon High School Robotics Team

•Odyssey of the Mind competitions discontinued

•Sponsored by 3-Dimensional Services

•Anthon’y first year

 1997•OSMTech starts a FIRST Team

•Sponsored by Budd Company

•RUSH acronym is created by Zach Wheeler – respect, unity, spirit, heart

•Use old fruit loops logo

•First appearance of jim holmes…..budd company employee

•Builds a fantastic robot, has lights in interior……wins Motorola quality award in Chicago at Medieval Times

•Create “passive arm design”

•Brandon robot becomes sponsored by Lear - Learhawk

 1998•lose sponsor

•build robot at small machine shop, Denovo

•for simplicity, replicate their previous years arm.

•Compete at a high level despite lack of sponsors

•“Lyron and Justin metal flattening story”

•“bird’s nest cart story”

•Brandon team becomes sponsored by GM Truck, Truck Town Terror, now Thunder

•First appearance by Shannon Schnepp and Justin Ridley

 

1999•Team Rush picked up by Chrysler

•Share field with Team 33

•Don’t make their own scrimmage, off to slow start

•Anthony leaves Brandon team to start Team 221 - MI Roboworks

•Rush wins Great Lakes and Chicago regionals with Beatty - 71

•Win most photogenic award in Great Lakes and Chicago

•Go unseeded at Nationals

•221 wins Most Potogenic at Nationals, seeds 6th, chooses Rush and Beatty for finals

•Alliance finishes 4th after close loss to Wildstang and Technokats

 2000•Shannon starts West Side Boiler Invasion – Team 461 at Purdue

•Anthony takes 221 to Michigan Tech

•Rush goes back to the passive arm design

•One of most complex robots for Rush to date

•Two mode drivetrain, passive arm, roller assemblies, worm gear lift

•Mrs. Hughes wins Woodie Flowers Award

 2001•First appearance of six wheel drive for Rush

•First robot to not be blue

•Dubbed the “lama”

•Has simple one piece electronics design

•Has complex lunar landers that get scrapped before first competition

Team Rush History

2002•Crab claw bot

•Grabbers work good

•First multi-motor gear shift design for Rush

•Ballscrew….fails, is removed or at least disabled

 2003•Rush builds first multi-joint robot arm with turret

•six-wheel drive remains

•Uses simple dead-reckoning auton to navigate to the top of ramp…….

•Snag first regional win since `99 at Buckeye Regional

•Shannon’s team 461 wins Regional Chairman’s Award

2004•Multi-joint arm and turret return

•Six-wheel drive remains

•Have several close calls, no wins

•“no back-up battery story”

•Rush receives Regional Chairman’s Award

 2005•Shannon and Anthony return

•Mutli-joint arm and turret remain, undergo redesign by Anthony

•Upper-joint is never built correctly……suffers all season

•Six wheel drive is streamlined, complex custom gearboxes replaced with Dewalt drill motor transmissions

Team Rush History

FIRST Awards SummaryChairman’s Award was created to keep the central focus of the FIRST Robotics Competition as our ultimate goal for transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encourage more of today’s youth to become scientists, engineers, and technologists. It represents the spirit of FIRST; honoring the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and which embodies the goals and purpose of FIRST. It remains the most prestigious team award FIRST presents.

 

DaimlerChrysler Team Spirit Award celebrates extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit through exceptional partnership and teamwork.

 

Delphi’s Driving Tomorrow’s Technology Award celebrates an elegant and advantageous machine feature. This award recognizes any aspect of engineering elegance including, but not limited to: design, wiring methods, material selection, programming techniques, and unique machine attributes.

 

Engineering Inspiration Award celebrates a team’s outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school as well as their community. Criteria include: the extent and inventiveness of the team’s efforts to recruit students to engineering, the extent and effectiveness of the team’s community outreach efforts, and the measurable success of those efforts. This is the second highest team award FIRST bestows.

 

Johnson and Johnson – Sportsmanship Award celebrates outstanding sportsmanship and continuous gracious professionalism in the heat of competition, both on and off the playing field.

 

Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers – Entrepreneurship Award celebrates the Entrepreneurial Spirit. This award recognizes a team, which since its inception has developed the framework for a comprehensive business plan in order to scope, manage, and obtain team objectives. This team displays entrepreneurial enthusiasm and the vital business skills for a self-sustaining program.

 

Motorola Quality Award celebrates machine robustness in concept and fabrication.

 

Most Photogenic Award celebrates attractiveness in engineering and outstanding visual aesthetic integration from the machine to team appearance (this award is now called the Imagery Award).

 

Woodie Flowers Award is awarded to an outstanding engineer or teacher participating in each of the robotics Regional Competitions. Students choose and write about a person on their team who best demonstrates excellence in teaching science, math and creative design. Until 2004, there was only a national winner. In 2004, each regional awarded a winner, who then went into the National pool of awardees.

Team RUSH Awards1997

Motorola Quality Award, Midwest Regional

1998

Judges Award – Against All Odds Award, Great Lakes Regional

16th place overall, National Championship

2000

National Woodie Flowers Award – Mrs. Kyle Hughes

National $20,000 FIRST-Kettering Scholarship - Lyron Maxey

1999

Champions, Midwest Regional

Champions, Great Lakes Regional

Most Photogenic Award, Midwest and Great Lakes Regionals

4th place overall, National Championship

Autodesk Design Your Future Award - Becky Sherman, National Championship

2001

Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award, UTC Regional

DaimlerChrysler Team Spirit Award, Great Lakes Regional

Team RUSH Awards2002

Finalists, West Michigan Regional

National $20,000 FIRST-Kettering Scholarship - Seth Henderson

Finalists, Oakland County Competitive Robotics Association

2003

Champions, Buckeye Regional

Finalists, Great Lakes Regional

3rd place, National Championship Archimedes Division

Motorola Quality Award, National Championship

Champions, Indiana Robotics Invitational

Champions, Ford Sweet Repeat Robotics Invitational

Champions, Oakland County Competitive Robotics Association

Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers Entrepreneurship Award, Buckeye Regional

Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award, Great Lakes Regional

Team RUSH Awards2004

Chairman's Award, Great Lakes Regional

Woodie Flowers Award - Tim Flickinger, Great Lakes Regional

Motorola Quality Award, Midwest Regional

National $20,000 FIRST-Kettering Scholarships - Bryan Duggan & Kurt Wachowski

Finalists, National Championship Galileo Division

Finalist & 1st Seed, Kettering Kickoff Robotics Invitational

“All Girls” Robotics Champion and Team Spirit Award Winner, Ford Sweet Repeat

Semi-Finalist & 2nd Seed, Oakland County Competitive Robotics Association

2005

Motorola Quality Award, Detroit Regional

Quarter-finalist & 9th Seed, Detroit Regional

Engineering Inspiration Award, West Michigan Regional

Finalist & 2nd Seed, West Michigan Regional

Quarter-Finalist & 3rd Seed, National Championship Archimedes Division

National $20,000 FIRST – Kettering Scholarships – Austin Duggan

Team R

ush 27

Chrysle

rTea

m Rush

27

C&A Team R

ush 27

C&A Team R

ush 27

C&A Team R

ush 27

No Main

MI R

obo 221

Meri

tor

WBI 4

61

Purdue W

BI 461

Purdue W

BI 461

Purdue W

BI 461

Purdue

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

RoboNaut 118

NASA

HS 68

Truck

Terror

Anthony Lapp

Shannon Schnepp

Justin Ridley

BHS 68

Truck

Terror

Team Rush

MI R

obo 221

Meri

tor, M

TU

MI R

obo 221

MTU M

I Robo 857

MTU M

I Robo 857

MTU M

I Robo 857

MTU

Team Rush 27

No Main

BHS

3D Service

s

BHS

Lear

Team Rush 27

Denovo Team Rush 27

Chrysler

WBI 4

61

Purdue

A Brief Team History

Team R

ush 21

Budd

Josh Frisch

John Nielson

Jason Markesino