2023 FIRST Global RoboCo Challenge
In 2023, RoboCo collaborated with robotics non-profit FIRST Global to produce another virtual robotics challenge. Called The 2023 FIRST Global RoboCo Challenge (or FGRC23), 44 teams participated in a two-month-long, international challenge to build the best robots. Learn more at fgrc.roboco.co.
⚙ Structure
The challenge was divided into 3 rounds of competitive play: Qualifiers, Playoffs, and Finals.
Each round of the challenge started when the gameboard was released. Gameboards are objective-based scenarios (AKA puzzle spaces) in RoboCo. Each board was compromised of 1 main objective, 2 sub-objectives, and 5 "secret" objectives, and each was associated with one round of the challenge. Once participants downloaded the gameboard, they worked within their county-based teams to build a robot that could achieve the highest score possible then submitted a video of their best run.
To complete each round, FIRST Global and Filament Games streamed a video broadcast showing all the participants' challenge runs, complete with announcer commentary and scoring for every team.
⚙ Scoring
For each round, teams had a total of 2 minutes and 30 seconds to complete as many objectives as possible, meaning that time, unlike in the previous FIRST Global RoboCo Challenge, was not a component of scoring. Instead, teams were scored based on objective completions, the cost-efficiency of their robot, and penalties.
Cost-efficiency was determined mathematically by subtracting the cost of a team's robot from 10,000 (i.e. the cheaper the robot, the more points earned). If a penalty occurred during a team's run, 1,500 points were retracted from their score. You can see a full breakdown of the possible points a team could earn each round below.
⚙ Results
On March 4, 2023, FIRST Global and Filament Games crowned their second Season Champion - Team Lebanon. Team Algeria took home second place and Team Hope took home third place.
⚙ Awards
In addition to crowning overall winners for FGRC23, there were also awards for Most Efficient Robot, Most Aesthetic Robot, Most Creative Robot, and Most Elegantly Engineered Robot. Awards for Most Efficient Robot were determined mathematically while the other awards were determined by a panel of judges.
Most Efficient Robot
- Gold - Team Portugal (Gagobot - Qualifiers)
- Silver - Team Seychelles (Pochitabot - Qualifiers)
- Bronze - Team Lebanon (Amiga Eco - Finals)
Most Aesthetic Robot
- Gold - Team Columbia (Teddy - Qualifiers)
- Silver - Team Syria (Mutqin - Qualifiers)
- Bronze - Team Burkina Faso (CleaningGoat - Qualifiers)
Most Creative Robot
- Gold - Team Bulgaria (Super Acho - Playoffs)
- Silver - Team People’s Republic of China (RoboFamily - Finals)
- Bronze - Team Keyna (Jungu-Bot V1.0 - Qualifiers)
Most Elegantly Engineered Robot
- Gold - Team Ukraine (Elysian Gora - Finals)
- Silver - Team Slovakia (BUMBL3BEE - Qualifiers)
- Bronze - Team Libya (Hollow - Playoffs)
⚙ Broadcast
Watch the broadcasts of The 2023 FIRST Global RoboCo Challenge on RoboCo's Official YouTube channel.