How to Organize an FTC Team

This resource serves as a best practices guide for both new and established teams on how to organize a FIRST ® Robotics Competition team. Using this five-step model, your team will be able to create an organizational chart, divide students into teams, elect leadership, create team standards and establish internal communication.

Even though you have registered and created an FTC team, how do you run it? This blog post serves as a good practice guide for new and established teams on how to run an FTC team. Please utilize this five-step team model. Email us at singularityftc@gmail.com with any questions!

5-step Organizing an FTC Team

According to the FTC documents:

Phase 1: Teams and Subteams Teams can typically be broken into two major groups; Robot and Team/Logistics. The robot team works on all aspects of the robot while the logistics side focuses on everything else. These two major groups can be further divided into subgroups, depending on the needs of your team. These titles for subteams and teams are just one example, and it is up to what the team wants to do going forward. For example, the logistics team can also be called the team side or nontechnical team.

Robot Side:

● Design - The Design subteam is in charge of designing the robot based on the prototypes and decisions that the team agrees upon. Using that design, they will create computer or hand sketches for the Mechanical team to use during fabrication. For FIRST Robotics Competition teams who use 3D printing or computer-aided manufacturing on their robot, this work may fall under this subteam.

● Electrical - The Electrical subteam is the bridge between the mechanical and programming elements of the robot. They’re in charge of creating and managing the electrical board, as well as locating the board in a safe but easy-to-access area of the robot. Drawings are made, this team will manufacture and assemble the parts necessary for the robot.

● Programming - The Programming subteam is crucial for creating a functional robot, that not only works but runs at maximum capacity. This team is responsible for creating the programming logic between the operator’s controls and the robot’s sensors and motors. They will program any autonomous routines and any other automated functions that are used.