Terminology

A fair number of acronyms are used throughout this manual. Below is a list of many of these acronyms and additional terms along with their definition. The official definitions and descriptions of field components are found in the FRC Game Manual.

Acronym

Term

Description

FRC

FIRST Robotics Competition

The original FIRST program, for high school students.

FMS

Field Management System

The software (provided by FIRST) that walks volunteers through the course of an FRC event

SCC

Station Control Cabinet

A series of plastic enclosures that house electronics that are assembled and maintained by FIRST Engineering, and setup around the field

DS

Driver Station

A computer, usually a Windows laptop, used to relay control commands from the Team to the Robot

PCK

Philips Color Kinetics

A line of products manufactured by Philips, including controllers and light strings, that commonly appear around FRC fields to relay scoring information to the audience and teams

AD

Audience Display

A software program that is used to control the display of game information to the audience, including real-time scoring, rankings, playoff brackets, and more.

FTA

FIRST Technical Advisor

Volunteer representative of FIRST HQ at events, supervises field operations and troubleshooting

roboRIO

Control system “brain” manufactured by National Instruments and required on each FRC Robot

Pit Display

A laptop, provided by FIRST that displays ranking information at each event to people not in the immediate area of the field