2025 Safety Animation Award Theme & Safety Manual Now Available!
Safety Animation Award sponsored by UL Solutions
We are excited to announce the theme for the 2025 Safety Animation Award sponsored by UL Solutions: Dive into Safety!
Safety and sustainability go hand in hand. Sustainable practices help assure we’ll have the resources we need to problem-solve, innovate, and be productive year after year. Safety is key to sustainability, helping us avoid waste, conserve energy, and protect our most valuable human resources from accidents and injury.
For the 2025 Safety Animation, teams are challenged to take a deep dive, exploring the vast partnership between safety and sustainability. Teach us your best practices. Inspire us to act in safe and sustainable ways. Use your talents to influence others through effective and memorable messaging. Let creativity be your guide!
UL Solutions will provide restricted grants to the Winner and Finalists. The Winner will receive $500 and each of the two Finalists will receive $250 towards registration in 2026. Thank you, UL Solutions!
Teams can check out the details about the Safety Animation Award criteria as well as the 2025 Safety Manual on the FIRST ® Robotics Competition Safety page. Be sure to read through this manual for important safety information, as it provides a basic set of requirements to maintain a safe environment during the build season, at competition events, and throughout everyday life!
UL Solutions and FIRST Safety Learning Portal
And don’t forget that team members can take online safety training to enhance your team’s safety program on the UL Solutions and FIRST Safety Learning Portal. This training is designed to complement a team’s current safety program by providing more in-depth training on the following topics:
Safety Manual Training
Fire Extinguisher and Safety Awareness
Hand and Power Tool Safety Awareness
Hazard Communication – Safety Data Sheets
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Awareness
Recognizing Electrical Hazards Awareness
Lockout/Tagout Awareness
Hearing Conservation Awareness
As we ramp up for the upcoming season, remember: Safety FIRST!
I skimmed through the new safety manual looking for differences from the old one.
TL;DR: Don’t shout robot; you may power-on in queue.
Many small tweaks to the wording, adding or removing examples.
Some parts were made applicable or non-applicable to FTC.
§3.2.1 (Tool Rules) gained a bullet:
Wear Safety Glasses or Goggles. Eye Protection is crucial when using hand tools to shield your eyes from flying debris.
§5.1 (General) is new:
Robots are permitted to be powered on while in queue. Robots which are powered on, but not enabled, such as to deploy code, require minimal additional precautions. Teams enabling their robot, such as to charge pneumatics or test system functions, should ensure that they are maintaining safe space for any mechanism on the robot to move unexpectedly to its full extent.
It is generally a best practice to disable or power off the robot during transport, including when moving to and from your pit, waiting in queue, and moving the robot on and off the field. Robots which are powered on, but not enabled, require minimal additional precaution to move the robot.
A bullet in §5.2 (Robot Carts) lost its exception:
Do not add music or other sound-generating devices to the cart.
was:
… with the exception of devices of reasonable volume intended to be activated occasionally for safety purposes to make others in the direct vicinity aware that a robot is on the move.
§5.3 (Pre-Lift Procedures) lost a bullet, was:
Is the robot powered off?
§7.3.2 (Pit Station Safety) lost two bullets, was:
When transporting your robot, politely keep pedestrians alert to your movement
Child strollers and baby carriages are not allowed within individual pit stations
§11.1 (Key Objectives of the Safety Program) gained a bullet:
Coordinate, deliver, and track safety training for the individual team members as well as teamwide safety procedures.
It is suggested that teams bring their training log and procedures to events and continue to make comments about infractions and/or areas of continuing improvement.
The first four bullets of §11.2 (Student Safety Captains) are somewhat different .
Work with a team adult to learn about common safety risks which might occur when building or competing with FIRST Robotics Competition robots and how to mitigate those risks.
Help identify and escalate safety concerns to ensure that participants, volunteers, and spectators have injury-free competitions.
Work with their team to develop and document a team safety program that outlines your team’s
safety culture with consideration for the elements in this manual.
Find ways to promote the importance of working safely every day as part of your team culture and processes.
was:
Help ensure that participants, volunteers, and spectators have injury-free competitions.
The mentor should coach the student safety captain(s) to ensure that they understand the position’s responsibilities.
Develop a team safety program that outlines your team’s safety culture with consideration for the elements in this manual.
Encourage your team to always display positive safety behaviors.
7.4 also changed. Explicity said to maintain distance between people and robot
2025
If your event has a practice field/area, be sure to maintain enough open space between humans and the robots. This space will help ensure that robots and moving parts will not contact people within the practice area. It will also help prevent accidents involving those persons viewing the sessions or traveling nearby who may not be aware of the movement of the robots. Be sure to wear proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and use safe lifting practices. Make sure the practice field is clear of debris and be gracious by picking up any foreign materials. If the event has designated volunteers for the practice field, they are there to help maintain a safe area. Please cooperate with them.
2024
If your event has a practice field/area, be sure to obey the rules for maintaining an “exclusion zone” around the area. This zone will help ensure that robots and moving parts will remain within the practice
area. It will also help prevent accidents involving those persons viewing the sessions or traveling nearby who may not be aware of the movement of the robots. Be sure to wear proper personal protective equipment (PPE) and use safe lifting practices. Make sure the practice field is clear of debris and be gracious by picking up any foreign materials. The designated volunteers are there to help maintain a safe area. Please cooperate with them
That’s fair. I had that down as a minor rewording, but the new rule addresses safety within the practice area rather than safety at the edge of the practice area.
The short answer is no. The long answer is that the FRC Safety page gives some guidance. Perhaps more usefully, that page also gives links to some previous winners.