In December 2025, FIRST confirmed that its next control system, SystemCore, will change what counts as a legal motor. From the 2027-28 season, FTC teams will be allowed exactly one legal actuator: the REV-built A301. For a program that has long let teams mix motors from several suppliers, that is a significant shift. The short answer for most teams is that you have two full seasons to plan, so there is no need to rush, but there is good reason to think carefully about what you buy between now and then.

What FIRST announced

The announcement, posted to the FIRST blog and mirrored on Chief Delphi, sets out that the SystemCore era begins in the 2027-28 season and that the A301, built by REV Robotics, will be the single legal actuator for FTC from that point. Teams competing before then keep their current hardware rules, so nothing changes on the field for the next two seasons. The switch arrives with the new control system rather than as a mid-season rule tweak, which gives everyone a fixed date to work back from.

Reaction was quick. The Chief Delphi discussion thread drew 189 posts and more than 1,500 likes, and a student-led petition followed. That level of engagement signals the decision touches something teams value: the freedom to choose their own drivetrain and mechanism motors.

The case for standardisation

There is a real argument for a single actuator. One motor means one datasheet, one spare part to stock, and one wiring pattern to learn. Rookie teams and volunteer mentors spend less time reconciling different suppliers' quirks and more time building. Inspection gets simpler, documentation gets deeper, and the gap between a well-funded team and a scrappy one narrows a little, because nobody can buy a better motor than anyone else.

Standardisation also tends to make software more predictable. When every team runs the same actuator, shared code, tuning guides and troubleshooting advice apply to everyone. Over a full season that can save a surprising amount of debugging time.

The case against: sunk hardware and lost flexibility

The other side is straightforward. Teams have already spent money on motors that will not be legal in the SystemCore era. Those parts still work for the next two seasons, but their competitive life now has an end date. For a program that prizes engineering creativity, narrowing the motor choice to one part also removes a design lever that teams used to differentiate their robots.

There is also single-supplier risk. When one actuator is mandatory, its price, stock levels and shipping times matter to every team at once. If the A301 is hard to get in a given region, or if a batch has issues, there is no legal alternative to fall back on. None of the pricing or distribution detail is public yet, so this is a risk to watch rather than a problem to price in today.

What it means for low-budget and non-US teams

Standardisation reads differently depending on where you sit. A single mandated actuator from a US-based supplier concentrates the supply chain. Teams outside the United States already deal with import duties, freight and currency swings, and a one-part rule removes the option of sourcing a comparable motor locally. A South African team budgeting in rand, for example, feels every exchange-rate move on a part it is now required to buy.

The picture is not all downside. Stocking one spare type instead of several can lower the long-run cost of keeping a robot running, and a predictable part is easier to plan a budget around. Whether the net effect helps or hurts a tight-budget team depends almost entirely on where the A301 lands on price and how easy it is to get, and neither is known yet.

What to do if you are planning purchases

With two seasons of runway, the sensible move is to plan rather than react.

1. Do not stockpile legacy motors expecting to use them past the 2026-27 season. Buy what you need for the seasons you will actually compete in.
2. Keep the motors you already own. They stay legal until SystemCore arrives, so there is no reason to replace them early.
3. Treat the 2027 switch as a known, dated cost and start setting money aside for it now, the same way you would for any planned upgrade.
4. Follow official FIRST and REV channels for A301 pricing and availability before you commit a large order.
5. Favour parts that survive the change. Structure, wheels, electronics housings and sensors are largely actuator-agnostic and will carry over.

Building skills that outlast any rule change

Hardware rules will keep moving. The investment that holds its value is the team's skill base: programming, mechanical design and the habit of iterating quickly. A team that is strong on fundamentals can absorb a motor change without losing a season. The same is true of building a pipeline of younger students who are ready to step up.

This is where structured coaching helps. Our robotics academy focuses on the programming and design thinking that transfer across any control system, and entry-level builders can start on the sheenbot∞ board long before they reach competitive robotics. Holiday workshops are a low-commitment way to test whether a student wants to go further. None of that depends on which actuator FIRST blesses in 2027.

Takeaway

The A301 decision gives FTC a cleaner, more uniform platform and takes away some choice and some flexibility. Standardisation has genuine benefits for rookies and for fairness, but the single-supplier risk and the sunk cost of existing motors are real, especially for low-budget and non-US teams. You have two seasons to prepare, so plan your purchases around the fixed date, keep spending on skills rather than soon-to-be-obsolete hardware, and watch the official channels for the pricing detail that will settle most of the open questions. For more analysis like this, see our newsroom.