Future Robot Control System Update

Blog authored by Collin Fultz and Rachel Moore

Last November, FIRST^®  released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for our next robot controller for FIRST^® Robotics Competition and FIRST^® Tech Challenge.

As we’ve passed the original “Final Selection” date of the original RFP, we wanted to provide an update on progress.

Due to the large number of proposals we received, we’ve pushed back our selection date to later this month to allow for a thorough review of all of the proposals. Working with all of the respondents, we’ve confirmed that this delay will not impact any of the other dates on our development timeline.

This means that we will still be doing Alpha Testing in the summer of 2025 and Beta Testing in the summer and fall of 2026.

Based on the responses to the RFP, we are confident that we will meet our goal of a shared robot controller experience for FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition teams and all of the benefits that come from that.

We know many of you are excited and eager for information, but we will not be able to immediately share with the community when a final selection is made. There are several things that need to happen before we will be able to share the news publicly, including finalizing an agreement with the chosen supplier(s), and notifying the other suppliers that they were not selected. We will share information on the future controller when we are able.