This Saturday January 6th 2018, the new FIRST FRC 2018 season game and field will be revealed which will then set thousands of high school teams and they will begin work on their robot designs followed by the competitions. The only thing we know right now from FIRST in their public hints and teaser video, is that the game and field is themed “8-bit” and the game is named “POWER UP”.

FIRST Robotics Competition Game & Season Info

Autodesk will be at the reveal event here in the Pacific Northwest at the University of Portland. The Autodesk high school interns will be showing the latest Autodesk Synthesis release which is available free to all FIRST FRC teams including the new 2018 field on Saturday Synthesis allows FRC team to insert their robots 3D design model into the game field with a physics engine and simulate their performance on the field as well as provides their drivers to critical practice time practice long before their robot has been built or controls and coding complete. Having the team drivers experienced with the field long before the competitions is a big advantage for teams. Imagine getting to drive a robot on the new field the day the game is announced! If you are attending at University of Portland launch, please stop by say “hi” and test rive the new field.

Here are some of our high school interns involved in Autodesk Synthesis.

If you are on a FIRST FRC Team, you really should go download Autodesk Synthesis. Hopefully you are also using Autodesk Inventor or Autodesk Fusion as they are completely free to students at the Autodesk Education website.
https://www.autodesk.com/education/home

After the reveal event I will be heading to be with my Team 1540 Flaming Chickens as they start their design and strategy sprints. Team 1540 has gotten to world finals the past couple years and use Autodesk design products like Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Fusion 360 to completely digital design their robot before cutting a single part. It allows them to spot potential mistakes and make assumptions digitally instead of finding mistakes in the physical parts causing delays and more material costs.

An exciting season of competition and sportsmanship are soon to commence, and I can’t wait. Thank you to the students, teachers, mentors, parents, sponsors, and FIRST for making this all happen!

Lets POWER UP!