The FIRST Robotics Competition challenges teams of high school students working with professional adult mentors to build a robot designed to compete in a specific game each January. The challenge is created every year by a Game Design Committee including inventor Dean Kamen. Once the rules of the game are announced, the team has six weeks to design, build, program and test their robot using only a "kit of parts" given to every team, commercial off the shelf components, and any parts fabricated by the team. The robots must fit within a 38" by 28" foot print and weigh no more than 120 pounds.

FRC Statistics More than 2,300 teams 58,000 high school students 50 Regional events 1 State Championship & 1 Regional Championship 14 District Competitions FIRST Robotics Competition Championship at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO, April 25-28, 2012 Robots are built in 6 weeks from a common kit of parts provided by FIRST, and weigh up to 150 lbs. (excluding battery and bumpers)