[FRC Blog] 2015 FIRST Championship Updates

[Hallry]

Posted on the FRC Blog, 3/9/15:

2015 FRC Championship Updates

Blog Date: Monday, March 9, 2015 - 14:22

Guest blogging this week is Toby Clarke, the Program Manager for FIRST Robotics Competition. Toby manages the behind-the-scenes logistics that make our season possible, in addition to a lot of other tasks- including logistics for Championship. Some of you will have the opportunity to meet him, as he is an FTA for several events this year.

Hello FRC Community!

With the Championship in St. Louis now not far away, we want to provide you with an update on the ongoing planning for this event. We are very excited about this program.

As previously shared, we will be welcoming up to 600 teams to the event and they will be playing on a total of 8 fields. These 8 fields, or sub-divisions, will have 75 teams assigned to each. There will be 2 sub-divisions making up each of the 4 divisions. This means that there will be 150 teams eligible for the judged awards on each of the 4 divisions. The smaller sub-division structure will allow us to maximize the number of qualification play opportunities for each team and allow more teams (43% vs. 32%) to participate in the playoffs.

As Frank shared in an earlier blog, we have kept the four previous division names and added four new ones. Below is how these 8 sub-divisions will be grouped into the 4 divisions:

Newton – Hopper
Curie – Carver
Galileo – Carson
Archimedes – Tesla

Below are a few diagrams with details of the FRC Championship layouts. For more detailed drawings, please look at these files for the competition fields in the Edward Jones Dome and the pits in the America's Center. If you look at the layouts, you’ll see that there are 8 competition fields on the floor of the Dome. In addition, there are 4 practice fields grouped together in the pits, between the Archimedes-Tesla division and FLL area. This is twice the number of fields for 50% more teams, which yields more team access.

In addition, there will be a team support area for spare parts and NASA Machine Shop services located centrally, near Pit Administration (indicated by the blue octagon between the Curie-Carver and Galileo-Carson pit areas). The main Robot Aisle is shown on the layout by thick red and green lines, which cut through the center of each division’s pit areas. These two lines represent two separate lanes, going either to or from the pits/dome/practice fields. Think of the Robot Aisle as a two-lane divided highway- we made this change to allow for easy robot transportation. You’ll see these lanes of traffic continuing from the Pit to the Dome layout, indicating how teams will enter and leave the Dome floor.

Edward Jones Dome Floor: Sub-Division Fields



America's Center: Pit Areas and FRC Practice Fields



Following the conclusion of the sub-division playoffs, the Archimedes and Tesla fields will be transformed on Saturday afternoon to create two Einstein fields. This will provide the location where the winning alliances from each of the 8 sub-divisions will compete to determine the 4 team alliance that will be the 2015 FRC Champions.

The FIRST Championship Conferences are being expanded as well to provide more learning opportunities. The final schedule is planned to be released on Monday, March 25. For more information, visit http://www3.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/firstplace/workshops-and-conferences

As FIRST takes over St. Louis during Championship, be sure to check out FIRST Tech Challenge at Union Station and the FIRST Innovation Faire at the Renaissance Hotel. There will be shuttles continuously running between venues, to make it easy to move around the city.

We can’t wait to welcome all the qualifying teams and FIRST supporters to St. Louis. Good luck during the upcoming weeks and we hope to see you there!

Toby