FIRST Lego League

FIRST Lego League, or FLL was founded in 1998, in a partnership between FIRST and the LEGO Corporation. As an offshoot of the FIRST Robotics Competition, FLL was designed for a younger audience using the Lego Mindstorms kits. Students involved in FLL build small LEGO robots, that traverse a 4’ by 8’ playing field to accomplish tasks related around a core theme.

Robot Challenge

Each year in September, the official FLL game is released. Special playing field components, all made of LEGO’s, are used to simulate real world things, like polar bears for the Arctic Impact Challenge, or astronaut housing modules for the Mission Mars Challenge. From this date until their first competition, which is roughly 8 weeks, teams have to design, build, and program fully- autonomous robots made entirely of LEGO parts.

Research Assignment

In addition to the robot challenge, FLL teams also are required to do a ‘Research Assignment’, about modern problems in society related to the core theme of that year’s FLL Challenge. For example, in the No Limits challenge, teams had to come up with a robotic device to help disabled people, and present anything from the concept to a fully functional, completed device to a panel of judges.

Events

After the 8-week build season in over, FLL teams compete at one of over 200 regional FLL Events. Here, teams usually have three or more rounds in which they compete with their LEGO robot on the official playing field. Teams also present their Research Assignments, technical aspects of their robots, and how the team works together to three separate panels of judges.

Awards

The highest award an FLL team can receive is the Champions Award (formerly known as the Directors Award). This award is given to the team that has shown impressive robot performance, technical design, research, and teamwork. All four aspects are weighed equally. Winning the Champions Award at the regional level is the only way for an FLL team to reach the World Festival, where they fill one of roughly 80 spots. There, they compete in 3 matches, and present their research, technical, and teamwork once again, alongside FTC and FRC teams.