2022 Approved Devices and Rules Preview
December 8, 2021
As we have done in past seasons, we want to share a sneak peek at some changes coming to the 2027 FIRST® Robotics Competition Rules that we think may affect your purchasing decisions as you stock up on parts. While we don’t have all the rules finalized yet, we wanted to share some decisions that have been made so far. We will likely have a part two of this blog in the coming weeks outlining additional approved devices and possibly some additional tweaks to rules.
It’s also worth noting that some of the decisions shared below are part of a larger and on-going strategic discussion about the types of robot challenges and design tradeoffs presented to FIRST Robotics Competition teams. We are actively considering potential shifts in allowed robot power, component cost, and actuator limits which may result in further changes to rules in future seasons.
- While we had previously noted we were considering changes to pneumatics, we have decided to not make significant changes to the pneumatics rules for the 2027 season. We are continuing to investigate whether we want to make any changes for 2028+ and our goal is to share that decision as early as possible.
- We will have a rule similar to E510 “Don’t heat or cool ROBOT components to gain an advantage” from the FIRST Tech Challenge manual. We believe this rule prevents potentially dangerous or costly attempts to gain a competitive advantage by heating or cooling parts of a robot such as circuit breakers or batteries.
- We are implementing a motor limit for the 2027 season. Teams will be limited to a maximum of 18 motors. This limit would have impacted ~10% of teams in the 2026 season and reduces the overall motor and controller costs for a “fully outfitted” robot, and the need for secondary power distribution or complex wire harnesses to maximize power distribution slots available for motors.
- CANivore will be legal to add additional CAN bus(es) to Systemcore in 2027 (equivalent of 2026’s Manual Rule R717). This is an interim measure in order to ease transition and provide additional time for development and testing of Systemcore CAN-FD compatibility. For the 2028 season, that rule will be removed, requiring all CAN buses to originate with the Systemcore native busses; however, CANivore will remain legal as a node on any of those busses which allows for applications such as coprocessor use.
- We are removing the original Talon (P/N CTRE_Talon, CTRE_Talon_SR, and am-2195) and VictorSP (P/N 217-9090, am-2855, 14-868380) as legal motor controllers. These devices were each used by less than 0.5% of teams and total usage represented less than 50 devices each across all of FIRST Robotics Competition.
- We are removing the VEX BAG (P/N 217-3351) and VEX Mini-CIM (P/N 217-3371) motors from the explicit list of legal motors. These motors have been discontinued for a number of years and reducing the number of items on the allowed motor list makes the list more manageable for teams and volunteers. These motors may still be used under the “any brushed motor downstream of a 20A breaker” allowance but may no longer be used on larger circuit breakers.
- The USB battery rule will be modified to remove the voltage/current requirement, permitting all COTS USB batteries with capacity 100Wh or less (27000mAh at 3.7V). The existing rule did not align well with modern devices and documentation creating unnecessary difficulty both when sourcing devices and when inspecting them for legality.
As a reminder, these are not the only changes that will be made to the rules, make sure to read the Game Manual and Team Update 00 closely at Kickoff (posted on the Season Materials page) to ensure you don’t miss anything important.