FRC Terminology And Definitions

[JaneYoung]

All,

I've been thinking about guests and families of teams who will be in the stands during the upcoming competitions. I'd love to have a handout available that has some of the terms and their meanings that FIRSTers can reference when explaining the game, the awards, and the philosophy of FIRST. It's long been a wish a mine to have something like this in the information that FIRST distributes at the events. This handout would be something we could make available to the teams to help their guests enjoy the event with a deeper understanding.

There is a thread that was created last season called, FIRST Acronyms. It might be helpful to combine that with the terminology. The last post in that thread listed all of the acronyms that were posted in the thread and it is a very helpful resource.

I'm not great with technical definitions and would appreciate it if members would help think of common terminology in FIRST and terminology that is specific to LogoMotion.

An example would be:

autonomous - definition (provide the definition)

another would be:

minibot - definition

I asked a couple of friends' opinions on whether this is a good topic or not and they gave positive responses. Hopefully, this could be a helpful guide that would increase our guests/visitors' understanding and appreciation of the game and FIRST.

Thanks for your help with this.

Jane

[Brian C]

Jane

I've used this autonomous definition for the past few years while announcing.

Autonomous - The robot is operating using it's own on board programming and sensors with no human interaction.

Mini Bot - ahhhh still working on that one

[Mike Soukup]

Judge: the people with blue polo shirts that hand out awards

Referee: the people with striped shirts that call penalties

These two definitions should be mandatory reading for everyone in FIRST since at least 10% of the people I hear refer to referees as judges

[Cynette]

How about terms that might help rookie teams as well?

Queuing - the process of staging a robot and drive team in a line to be ready for an upcoming match. Teams should be prepared to get into the queue several matches (typical = 3) before theirs is scheduled.

Pit Admin - the area in the pits occupied by a group of volunteers who will answer questions, resolve problems and help teams find things or who know how to find other people who can answer questions, resolve problems and help teams find things.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Mike Soukup

These two definitions should be mandatory reading for everyone in FIRST since at least 10% of the people I hear refer to referees as judges

I never understand why refs are called judges. It's weird.

@Cynette - yes!

Jane

[rsegrest]

Teleop - Period of game time that the robot is controlled by human drivers

[Dancin103]

There are so many things to cover and trying to keep it concise is difficult. Our team used to do this and I think it is a great idea!

Another good break down would be the game, how it's played, the scoring system, and the game pieces.

[EricH]

A good place to start might be with Section 1.5, the official game summary. Without the pictures and the scoring summary, it reads:

LOGO MOTION is played by two competing alliances on a flat 27’ x 54’ foot field. Each alliance consists of three robots. They compete to hang as many inflated plastic shapes (triangles, circles, and squares) on their grids as they can during a 2 minute and 15 second match. The higher the teams hang their game pieces on their scoring grid, the more points their alliance receives.
The match begins with one 15-second Autonomous Period in which robots operate independently of driver inputs and must hang Ubertubes to score extra points. For the rest of the match, drivers control robots and try to maximize their alliance score by hanging as many logo pieces as possible. Any logo piece hung on the same peg as an Ubertube receives double points. If teams assemble the logo pieces on their scoring grids to form the FIRST logo (triangle, circle, square, in a horizontal row in that order), the points for the entire row are doubled.
The match ends with robots deploying minibots, small electro-mechanical assemblies that are independent of the host robot, onto vertical poles. The minibots race to the top of the pole to trigger a sensor and earn additional bonus points. Scoring is summarized below:

Total, one page with the field illustration and the scoring tables. Just might need a few other terms defined. If you're at an event, the field illustration won't be needed, so that space could be used for other things, like extra definitions (teleop/teleoperated, robot, end game, deployment, etc.).

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Dancin103

There are so many things to cover and trying to keep it concise is difficult. Our team used to do this and I think it is a great idea!

I'm not really worried about conciseness at this point, Cassie. I'm really looking for a nice dump of info that can be sorted out/worked through/edited and used for multiple purposes.
--
I think the FIRST community makes too many assumptions about a lot of things. One is the robotics environment that the teams are steeped in; some year-round. Many rookie teams have not been steeped in the mindset, terminology, game play. Many of the folks in the stands show up because of family members, friends, or curiosity and don't have the background or information to help them engage in the game or FRC/FIRST as much as they could with a little bit of support/outreach from our knowledgeable community.

Example: If I go to a football game, I need a little more help understanding it than if I go to a baseball game. If I go to a rugby game, I need a whole lot of help and a very patient person who is willing to help me understand what I'm seeing and why the plays are being called the way they are. In my opinion, the FRC game can be understood by all ages, much like football but - it becomes rugby because of lack of support in helping to understanding it.

There can be some easy fixes to helping grow FIRST in user friendly ways. This is one of them. It would also support what the emcees and announcers are doing, already.

Jane

[Rosiebotboss]

Robot Inspectors- A teams' best friend.

[Carol]

I like this idea! I can see this being divided into two parts (or the words differentiated somehow). One for terms that are evergreen (i.e. autonomous) and one for terms that are particular to that year's game (i.e. minibot)

[RoboMom]

We use Student Ambassadors (and adult ones) at Chesapeake.
I'm always teaching the "elevator pitch."
Would love to have something like this to include in training.

[JaneYoung]

Well, it's not generating many terms/definitions. Maybe I can come up with some terms and people can add definitions.

LogoMotion - Eric's post

Purpose of Logos in the game, LogoMotion -

Jack Kamen -

Dean Kamen -

Dr. Woodie Flowers -

Gracious Professional - definition and how the role it plays

--
Reffing - where the refs are responsible for.
(Some folks get all riled up because the 'ref wasn't even looking' - and it wasn't their area.
Yellow card -
Red card -


Positions on the field: field reset, scorekeepers, FTA, etc.
The Pits -
Pit Admin -
Lost and Found -


cRio -
Programmer/ing -

drivers' station -
human player -


points (example: minibot) -

drive train -
manipulator -
end effector -
arm -

camera -
line(s) -

Collaboration -
Coopertition -
Alliance (Red/Blue) - Purpose (?)

STEM -
sponsor -
FIRST Scholarships -
HoF teams -
Awards -

Autonomous - The robot is operating using it's own on board programming and sensors with no human interaction
Teleop - Period of game time that the robot is controlled by human drivers
Judge - the people with blue polo shirts that judge/select the teams and hand out awards
Referee - the people with striped shirts that call penalties
Red Card - A team does not get anything from a match due to nasty play. (Soccer: Rough play, a player is off the field for the duration of the game.)
Yellow Card - A team almost got a red card, and if they do that again, they will. (Soccer: Same thing as FRC.)

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by RoboMom

We use Student Ambassadors (and adult ones) at Chesapeake.
I'm always teaching the "elevator pitch."
Would love to have something like this to include in training.

I thought I'd include what resources I use to train the student and adult ambassadors to help the VIPs and the public understand what they are seeing so they can become engaged. I've done a lot of public speaking about FIRST in different settings and these tools make a package that has helped in the past. A handout of acronyms would be a fun addition.

Existing resources:
1. Psychology of FIRST (originally developed by John Abele). My favorite tri-fold. http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedFiles...d-2010-WEB.pdf
2. Lots of other handouts, including scholarships and stats: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...er.aspx?id=638
3. One-pager description of the game and point system used in the program book.
4. One-pager of talking points that have the following categories:
GAME DESCRIPTION
KIT OF PARTS & SHIPPING
ALLIANCES
FINDING THE ROBOTS/TEAMS
AWARDS
CHAMPIONSHIP
CHESAPEAKE REGIONAL STATS
EXPLANATION OF SCORING
BE PREPARED TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING:
• How to get involved locally?
• Who can join a team?
• How do mentors and sponsors get involved?
• What is Gracious Professionalism?

All these go into a folder to be used as reference materials at the event and we have lots of student ambassadors who spend time with the public and VIP's, using these references. For example, sitting with the VIP/public in the stands, and pointing to the one-pager explaining the game, while watching the game.

There are some materials available as take-aways, but the items listed above are for person-person interaction.

[Sayrah]

Originally Posted by Rosiebotboss

Robot Inspectors- A teams' best friend.

Where is the "like" button?