0.6 Working safely

Flying chips, spinning parts and the person next to you

When a drill bores through a part, a chip that breaks off can fly into your eye, and a spinning wheel or gears can pinch a finger that gets between them. Building a robot means drilling parts, cutting metal, connecting cables and running a machine that moves on its own. In each of these the risk is real, and it is not limited to the person holding the tool. The chip flies to your friend across the table, and a moving robot bumps into whoever walks past. That is why safety precautions are not a personal choice. They are a shared routine that matters to everyone working in the same space.

Every precaution targets one of these events. Safety glasses put a barrier between the chip and your eye. Disconnecting the robot's power before you reach toward a moving part cuts the electricity that turns that part. Both prevent injuries, and keeping the robot from getting damaged is an extra benefit that comes along with them.

FIRST counts safety as everyone's responsibility, both while you work and at tournaments. Here is what that means for you. When you see an unsafe situation, you have the right to stop the work and tell your mentor. You do not need permission, and whose fault it was can be discussed later. The first precautions start with you: safety glasses and clothing.

Safety glasses and clothing

The lenses of safety glasses resist impact, they cover the sides of your eyes, and they carry the mark of the safety standard they meet. Prescription glasses have lenses made for seeing. They carry no such mark and do not stop a particle coming from the side. If your lenses do not meet the standard, do not take your glasses off. Wear safety glasses over them.

An aluminum profile falling on your foot or a tool slipping from your hand can cause a serious injury, so you wear shoes that fully cover your feet, and nobody works in slippers. Long hair, a dangling necklace, an ID tag or a name badge can get caught in a spinning part and pull you in with it, so hair is tied back and anything that dangles comes off. Both rules also apply at tournaments. They are written in the Competition Manual as rule E101, and teams bring their own protective equipment.

Gloves are not always the right choice. When you work with chemicals or with parts that have sharp edges, the right gloves help. On a rotating tool like a drill, though, the fabric can get caught on the bit and pull your hand in. What you need depends on the tool, and tools are the next section.

Workspace and tools

Keeping your workspace in order is not about tidiness. It is about making room for the work. Other parts, open boxes and half-finished jobs on the bench eat up the space your hands need to move freely. On the floor, walkways stay clear and no extension cords are laid across them. A cable that catches your foot trips you, and it also pulls whatever it is connected to off the table.

For tools, one example is enough. Do not hold a part in your hand while you drill it. The moment the drill bit bites in, it tries to spin the part, and the part in your hand turns into a spinning object. Once the part is clamped in a vise or to the bench, the clamp takes that force instead. Try any tool you are using for the first time with your mentor. You cannot tell how to hold it and where to stop it just by looking at it.

A soldering iron tip reaches hundreds of degrees while it is on, and it stays hot enough to burn you for a while after it is unplugged. That is why it goes in its own stand and stays away from anything flammable. Do not breathe in solder fumes. Working in a ventilated space and using a fume extractor keep the fumes away from your face. This lesson is not a guide to every tool. The first time you cut or solder, your mentor will be next to you.

Battery, cables and charging

The robot's electricity comes from a battery that it carries on board. When the robot moves, a loose battery can shift out of place, pull on the cables and get stuck between a wheel and the chassis. A cable hanging loose can also wrap around a spinning part. So you think about mounting the battery firmly in its place and bundling the cables away from moving parts while you make the connections, not afterward.

The idea to understand in this section is the short circuit. A battery has two terminals. Normally, electricity leaves through these terminals, travels around the robot's circuit and comes back. When a metal object touches both terminals at the same time, it opens a much shorter path for the electricity, and a large current flows through that path. The result is a battery that heats up within seconds and a metal object that can burn your hand. The protection is simple. Do not carry the battery in your pocket or in a box together with screws and metal parts, and do not leave its terminals exposed when it is not in use.

Charge the battery with a charger its manufacturer approves and at the setting the manufacturer gives. Do not raise the current option on the charger just because you want to, because that value was chosen based on what the battery can handle. Second, a battery that is charging is never left unattended. Leaving it charging overnight means nobody notices if something goes wrong.

There is also a fuse on the line coming out of the battery. A fuse is a small protective part that cuts the circuit when the current goes above a safe limit. When it blows, it is replaced with a new one of the same rating. Silencing a fuse that keeps blowing with a higher-rated one does not fix the problem. It only switches off the protection. In that case, look for the real fault in the line. The fuse model and where it goes are covered in the 0.8 Introduction to electronic parts lesson.

Working on the robot and testing it

Jobs at the robot fall into two kinds. For things like changing parts, connecting cables and tightening screws, you do not want the robot to move. In a test you do want it to move, but you set the limits. You start the first kind by disconnecting the power, and the second by preparing the area.

For maintenance, the main power switch is turned off and the battery is disconnected from the robot. Just stopping the program does not replace this. Even when the program stops, the motors are still connected to a live power line, and a wrong touch or a program that starts again can turn them. In every job where a hand goes inside the robot, the battery is already disconnected. That is a team habit.

Cutting the power does not make the robot completely still. An arm that is up in the air can come down under its own weight, and a stretched rubber band or spring still holds energy. A mechanism that could fall is moved to a safe position or held with a support, and a spring or rubber band that is still under tension is made safe with your mentor.

Getting ready for a test starts with the area. Set aside the space the robot can move into ahead of time, make sure nobody is left inside it, and tell the people around you. While the robot runs, hands stay away from moving parts. When you see something to fix, you stop the robot, prepare it for maintenance, and only then put your hand inside. Start with a small movement and continue based on what you see. Running a motor at low power for a short time on the first test shows you early on if a motor is wired wrong or a direction is reversed in the code. It does not replace a test area, though. You do both together.

Carrying the robot and working at a tournament

When testing is done, the robot gets carried somewhere else, and carrying it is a job of its own. Before you lift it, look at where you will hold it. You need a point on the chassis that is solid, will not pinch your hand and will not come apart while you lift. Arms and flaps that move freely are secured before carrying. Otherwise they swing open on the way and close on your finger or catch on a door frame. Robot weight is different from team to team, so you decide how many people carry it by looking at the robot.

At a tournament, no new safety list begins. Your workshop habits carry on; only the setting changes. The work area given to your team is called the pit, and work on the robot is done there. The difference is that the pit is crowded, and your neighbor's robot is running two steps away. Safety glasses and closed-toe shoes are not a choice here but an event rule. Find out what is required in which area from the event's instructions and from the staff on site.

Not every workshop tool goes to the tournament with the same freedom. There are limits for tools that make sparks or flames and for bench tools, depending on the type of tool and the event conditions, and some of them can be used under certain conditions. For soldering, only electric soldering irons are used. Read which tool can be used under which conditions in the event section of the current Competition Manual. The local event's instructions add to that.

If there is a problem or an accident

When something is going wrong, there is usually a sign first. A burning or plastic smell, a cable that has gotten hot, visible damage, or the robot moving in a direction you did not expect at a moment you did not expect. When you see one of these signs, the test does not continue. The work stops and you tell your mentor. If you can turn off the main power switch safely, cut the power too, but do not reach for a hot or damaged part or a moving mechanism. Step away from the robot and ask your mentor or an event staff member for help.

If someone gets hurt, you start from the same place. You tell your mentor, and if you are at a tournament, you ask the event staff for medical help. Do this even for a cut that looks small or a particle that gets in your eye. You do not have to decide on your own how serious it is.

Extras

• FIRST Safety Manual, October 2025. A document shared by FTC and FRC. The sections on acid batteries and pneumatics are specific to FRC.
• 2026-27 FTC Competition Manual. Rule E101 on personal protective equipment, and the event area rules. It is updated during the season, and the version that applies is the current one.
• FIRST Robot Wiring Guide. The sections on securing the battery and on the main power switch.
• Robot Battery Care, Charging, and Fuses. Battery care and charging principles.
• The battery, main power switch and fuse as parts are covered in the 0.8 Introduction to electronic parts lesson.
• Making connections with the power off is covered in the 1.2 Electronics layout and cables lesson.
• Powering the robot for the first time is covered in the 1.3 First power-up and device updates lesson.
• The first controlled test is covered in the 1.6 First motor program lesson.
• Resources and printables