That has to be the Team 177 Arm Claw bot of 2001, fast, powerful, and long reaching. It could allow a robot that could not
balance a goal to do it easily because it could reach all the way with it's goal until the ramp tipped to the other side allowing the partner to just push one up and the bobcat would balance both!

16 (Baxter Bomb Squad) 2002 was a great bot. It could handle balls like no bodies buisness. Few other bots that year worked with them as well. It was just a great robot.

By years, I'd go with...
2003: WildStang (111) for the hands-down best autonomous mode and the reigning King of the Hill.
2002: Beatty (71) for the second year in a row, they figured out exactly how to win the game.
2001: Beatty (71) for a design that perfectly won the game.
2000: ChiefDelphi (47) for the most impressive piece of engineering I've seen on a FIRST robot.
1999: OSMTech (27) for the fastest puck climber.
1998: Baxter Bomb Squad (16) for the best ball manipulation.

2000 was my favorite year, as far as robots go. Amazing machines from teams 1, 16, 25, 64, 67, 71, 111, 175, 190 and more.

My favorite robot that I've had the pleasure to work on was the 1999 Truck Town Terror (68) machine, despite her nasty habit of destroying drill motors and speed controllers as quickly as we could put them on.

Adam

Arr.. I must agree! I saw that robot and it's ridiculous. I've never seen something pick up balls like that. It was cool!

additional comments
 

To Al S. ( 111) Thanks for the great picture!!!! I forgot that you were #81 that year.

For Chris Hibner-- the height for 1997 was 4'; The 1996
restriction was only 3'

As for Chief 2000, in my top 5---brilliant

Another 2 bots to look at; 1994 Tower of Power-- Sunny Delight vs. Ingersoll Rand. Those two robots fill out my top 5. The tape of their match still gives me goosebumps to watch.

Tigerbolt 1996 In myTop 10. The finals with E-systems went three rounds with the final round decided by a tie-breaker. Most exciting finals ever.

Sincerely,

Brian Beatty

Thanks PJ and Andy. I am Jesse from team 177, and I was a driver from 96 to 99, and I coached from 00 to 01.

I would have to say my favorites are:

01' 177 We could balance 2 off the ramp with help, score balls on both sides of ramp while we were on one side, under bar... Our drivers were great. Also team I liked team 126 with their team members. They were a great team to work with. We won the NE regional with them

00' 131 was a quick, and how 177 could hang quickly and defend the goal.

99' team 56, Robe Extreme and Quincy's floppy harvester. At the Rumble at the Rock this year, we proved to be pretty rugged.

98' 177 Yes, I am partial, but we did catch a ball in the air in our last match in NE against 47 and scored it in the last few seconds to make the final score a tie. We lost by a tie breaker. And as PJ said, we did win quality awards at both the NE regional and nationals. I also liked how 67 could score from either side of their machine.

97' Beatty. Talk about scoring fast. We finished 4th with our team 59 ring wrangler in the nationals

96' Nashua had good drivers. Hexcaliber looked impressive, and we were the Hexersist. Tigerbolt was definitely the team to beat

Yes, I know my picks are a little too partial to my own team, but hey, everyone loves their team.

my favorite idea for a 2001 bot has to be 111's mobile bridge robot. a very amazing robot that was able to balance the bridge while letting other robots drive over it

177 (2001)
 

I know that I'm more than a little bit biased, but I apreciated every minute of video that I took of that bot. Of course, what's a good bot without good drivers (Tommy and Eric). I definately think that one of the things that really worked against us at Nationals was that (no offense) there wasn't really a team in our division that could put the other goal onto the bridge without being on it themselves. But I'm not complaining (UTC Regional Winner, Design Award (UTC Regional), Galileo Winner). One last thing that has still puzzled me to this day. At Nationals that year, team 38 won the design award (and I'm not saying that they didn't deserve it), but they were also at the UTC Regional, and we were the ones that the judges gave it to.

Without to much self promotion...
 

64 in 2000, was one of the best ever. Even Woody remarked to me after a match that we made the game look too easy. I thought that was a pretty good review.....:cool:

I have to say that although I have only been involved since 2001, that team 60 from last year (2002) is my favorite bot of all time. I was the human player on team 144 last year, and when we got the number one seed in the curie division, we had the awesome privilege of inviting them to our alliance, and they sure lived up to their name. We didn't lose a single match through the division brackets, only to be put out by Beatty in two close matches in the first rounds of the final four. Man, those are some sweet memories...

You think that since Beatty beat us I would give them the props of having the better bot. Although I do agree that it was another awesome robot, I guess I was a little partial to my alliance teammate :)

Oh, and, not to mention.. the previous year team 144 was beaten by the beatty alliance in the finals at florida!

Needless to say I'm not a huge beatty fan.. but I am, since its all in good fun.

Lol, they not only lived up to their name... they put it in the FIRST Hall of Fame forever in my mind. I was driver for your other alliance partner that year (64 The Gila Monsters) and I have every second of that last match etched into my brain.

Semifinal 2: Match 2 (Clash of the Titans is what I call it):

60 (Kingman) speeds into two goals and latches on, a few seconds later crashing into 71 (Beatty) at very high speeds thanks to a little push by 64 (Gila Monsters).

While the giants fight for dominance of the two goals now interlocked between them, 173 (Rage) rushes over and grabs onto the other goal. As 173 is about to go scoop up some balls, 64 swerves around 60 and 71 in one fluid motion to pin 173 up against the rail. 173 tries to get around but 64 keeps strafing back and forth keeping them pinned either against the rail or the two giants who are motionless as both are still interlocked. All three goals and robots are in the 60 and 64 zone, and the pushing match continues.

25 seconds, 24, 23 and then the dreaded 22. I will never forget seeing the light of 64s robot going dead. Not sparing anytime, Rage pushes by 64 and puts the goal in their scoring zone. With almost no time left they spit out their tape measure and it lands perfectly in their end zone.

The buzzer sounds, and the match is over. Everyone waits anxiously to find out the score:

60 and 64: 31 pts (2 goals)
71 and 173: 32 pts (1 goal)

One ball decided the entire match, as a tie went to the winner who had the most goals that year.

Both alliances cried, one for joy and one for their hardwork coming down to a sad but beautiful end. It was a match I will never forget, and it is also what fuels my desire to one day hold the Championship trophy that the team I am on has earned :)

Anyway, a little biased too... but that is why I love 60 so much :yikes:

71 will always hold my respect as well, but that is more in a "I want to beat you" kind of way :rolleyes:

Man you remember it just as clearly as I do... was one of the most tense matches I've ever watched. I at first thought we had won it, because I didn't see the tongue that they unrolled into their robot zone. Thoughts of what could have been ran through my head for weeks afterwards, but I can't be disappointed to get as far as we got.

I'm glad i finally found someone on here to share this experience with!!! :D Makes me feel all warm inside thinking about it.

And yeah, I'd also too like to hold the national champ trophy :D

Re: What is the best robot EVER in FIRST?
 

I must say that one bot that should be recognized indefinately is the 2002 bot from team 95. They had the quickest ball pickup mechanism AND dump system i have ever seen. Within 10 seconds one row of balls could be picked up. One word...simply amazing.

-Pat

Re: What is the best robot EVER in FIRST?
 

I think that the best robots would be 2002 team 71 , 2003 wildstang for totally dominating the ramp and 1999 technokats with the big arm that would swing around (for a second i thoguht it was like battlbe bots or sumthin, that arm was amazing) and have good defense skills

Re: What is the best robot EVER in FIRST?
 

Okay folks, my pick for the favorite robot this time goes all the way back to the beginning. The 1992 Technokats robot. Call me crazy but it looks cool I think. Even though this sounds a bit prejudice. If you haven't got a chance to see it in person it's normally at our competitions. It is really small and can easily be carried by one person. Tell me what all you guys' think about it if you have seen it. Hopefully, someday, we can compete with it in a retro match. Go to here for a pic.

-Kyle