What is the best robot EVER in FIRST?
 

This being my fourth year involved with FIRST, I have seen a lot of good robots at these competitions. My question to all of you is, which do you think was the best robot ever made for a FIRST competition?

I guess I will go first, and I say Kingman's (60) 2002 robot was the best I have ever seen. They were the fastest to the goals, they grabbed them almost every time, AND they lifted and spun them around... not to mention almost no one could push them around.

One match we were allied with them, and our robot broke down. They pushed us, and our two opponents across the field into our scoring zone WHILE having both goals lifted... it was scary how powerful that thing was. I also had the privilege of driving it at the AZ invitational last year, and that thing is one slick machine :yikes:

Okay...that is simple...1996 Hexcalibur
 

For me...

The best FIRST robot will always be Hexcalibur, my teams robot in 1996. This 'bot was the winner of a Most Photogenic @ the regional level and a quality award as well. We also took finalist at the NHC Regional that year. In addition, Hexcalibur can be seen on display at FIRST Place.

-Justin

Lets try to stay away from saying that our own robots are the best.

I would have to say that my favorite robot is a toss up between two finesse robots.

1. Team 47 in 2000, Chief Delphi had first generation swerve drive along with an arm that was long enough to reach up and steal balls.

2. Team 111 in 2001, Wildstang came up with the ally that everyone would want. Besides being able to let other robots drive over them and balance the goals, they had many modular features that allowed them to be successful with just about any alliance partner.

Other notables: 71-2002, 25-2000, 45-2001, 60-2001,

Here are my favorites

99 TJ^2

00 Delphi

01 Beatty

02 Beatty and Team 25

03 ??????????????????

Well this is only my second year in FIRST. But I have to say that I think team 60 in 2002 was definetly the best robot that year. I was amazed to watch it. Not to mention intimidated. It was a great robot.

My pick (OK so I am a little prejudice!) is Wildstang 2000. It did everything on the field. Limbo, pick up balls while driving, (fast when empty, slightly slower when full) pick up from or give back to the human, climb the ramp, hang and even remove balls from the goal. If needed we could pull an alliance partner up with us. When it was depositing balls in the goal it looked like it was manufacturing them because we could hold 12.
This picture is the robot being demonstrated for incoming students and parents at an eighth grade intro night. That is me with my back to the camera. It is the robot I am pictured with in my signature as team members are discussing a problem with the ball lift.

I remember that one...but Big Jimmy in 2000. Interesting little ramp bot.

I'd like to point out that the first generation swerve drive for Chief Delphi debuted in 1998, not 2000. The drive used in 2000 would've been the third generation swerve drive.

As far as best robot goes, my pick would have to be team 71 in 2001 simply because they were virtually unbeatable. They worked flawlessly just about every time. This was partially because of the game that year but they managed to perfect 2001's game.

Matt

haha. before i opened the thread i thought of the topic and thought to myself "definately team 60's 2002 bot."

the team 25 robot from 2000 still is an amazing machine, with the huge arm able to pick up the balls and still take a lickin getting hit on the ramp. The SPAM robot from 2002 year was nice, they were the ones who took beatty out of finals last year by hitting the goal in the time the beast took to be half way there. From what i hear the WildStang bot from Torriod Terror was one intense machine being able to lift the tubes wayyy up in the air.

I think team HOT 67 has had some great robots the three years I have been in FIRST

Okay I still believe that team 60's 2002 robot was great. But I have to say that Team 343, Metal in Motion's Blitz rules this year! It was an excellent robot for an excellent team! I'm proud to be an honerary member. LoL. But still, I think that it was very competitive and designed well. Awesome Driving Mark.

-Later

Also:
In 2002 Team 180, S.P.A.M. had a superb robot! It was very well built and did well in competition!

Wildstang 1997
 

The Wildstang 1997 tube bot. This robot started in a 4' high starting position and could take 4 inner tubes 16' in the air and place them on top of the goal with reliability and stability. For you relative newcomers, this was when we didn't have beans for motors--couple of small drill motors, 4 seat adjuster, 2 window lift--done. And the material selection was limited to $425 from Small Parts and some anemic additional materials. This robot is nothing short of an engineering marvel and I am still in awe of it. The construction is as intricate as a Swiss watch, but durable. This bot is in the FIRST Hall of Fame in Manchester (along with the 1996 Hexcalibar bot mentioned earlier--most beautiful). Hopefully one of the Wildstang members could post a picture of it, although a copy of the video is well worth the time to watch ( that I have if anyone is interested ). Not enough has been said about this magnificent machine. Viewing this robot should be mandatory material for any incoming rookie FIRST team.

Sincerely,

Brian Beatty

TechnoKats. 99. One huge freakin' arm. All the power a robot could have.

If you have video or access to video, watch the semifinals at nationals from 99 versus Bomb Squad and Truck Town Terror (they'll always be Terror to me).

Beautiful.

::EDIT Or was that the quarterfinals? One round was 111 and TechnoKats and Chuck Pi versus 71 and 27 (one of the most-feared alliances in FIRST...ever...and very rightly so) and the other was versus 16 and 68. Now I doubt myself as to which was which. So watch both EDIT::


aTm

DUDES!

Does no one rember Team #5 from the year 2000?!?!

At Great Lakes, we had our little "retractable ladder" had our hook at the top of it for the bar. We hooked and dropped our little ladder. Teams, even the announcer, thought we broke - yelling "They Broke-They Broke" but 10 seconds later, there we go, over everyone on the ramp, even when we where on the carpet - ANY where on the carpet! That was my 1st year, and that was awsome. I'll never forget that, we got featherweight in the finals, but still pushed ANYONE around. That was awsome!

and so for:

2000 - 5
2001 - 343
2002 - 469
2003 - 111

Hands Down.........ChiefDelphi 2000. Fab machine!
 

Remarkable design. The huge swooping arm. The 'crab' drive. Loved it!

1995 West Ottawa and then Prince's robot. I cant remember the team number all the way back then because it was changed but they are now team 141 West Ottawa and JCI... Any of the people that know that game would probably remember this robot. It threw the giant balls from anywhere on the field up and through the uprights with ease. It was an awesome machine.

Right now, I'm saying 71 and 173 from last year (02). This year, I'm kinda partial to 79, just because they had a translational drive that we would have loved to been able to build (ours broke...).

the one robot that i liked the most is from this year and the robots name is eleanor from team 9. they have a great robot.

big arm that extended and was on a turret, fast hooks that never let go, and trucks custom made to stay on the pivoting ramp

hey im partial to it.. :p

i was amzed by delphi that year, i saw one match where all of their team8s were broken and they still managed to make a high score

Team 60 has always impressed me with awesome robots. The Cheesy Poofs have also impressed me with great machines year after year.

I think the best machine ever always is the robot that my team finished for every years given game. We make it a point to only enter the robot when we feel it is worthy to play the game and as a result I always think mine is the best... a narrow persepctive? maybe... the truth? yes...

When all is said and done, robot design is just a trivial part of what FIRST really is!

GO ROBOTS!!!

seriously, gauranteed bots that doo particularly well should not get all the credit.

for instance, the techno ticks from the NH regional and UTC won both, and won chairmans. plus, they had a sick and amazing bot that could do almost anything, from all the bots i have seen, i havent seen any being able to on the fly grab boxes and stack them in one felsh swoop. and since they couldnt go to nationals, no one knew about them, and i belive if they had gone, they woul d have gotten alot more attention than just me.


other than that, the best bot ever i have seen would have to be our bot in 00'. R2K, this bot was really bad in competition, but it looked like a million bucks!...almost cost that much too :p.
http://www.baesystemsfirst.org/team151/2000_info.html

I know I my outlook may be a bit swayed but more than one has expressed this opinion - what about the '98 (Ladder Logic) Bomb Squad entry. We squeezed the balls in from the side and were tough in the one-on-one rounds.

Greg

#16 Baxter 1998
 

Greg Mills did not say enough about this amazing machine. This machine could score 24" balls in the center goal by squeezing them to fit between pipes on 16" centers( I may be off an inch or two). It had a conveyor that could fit between the pipes, score multiple times at one trip to the goal, and make room in the goal if it was full. It could hold two balls in the 3 point scoring position and protect them both. Simple in concept yet ingenious in design. The construction is of the highest quality in every respect. This machine is in my top three and should be in the FIRST Hall of Fame. As mentioned before, FIRST should use this premium example as promotional and inspirational material for the newer teams not as fortunate to witness this incredible machine.

Sincerely,

Brian Beatty

Re: Wildstang 1997
 

That is a machine I remember very well, particularly the beautifully fabricated 4 stage (I think) lift made from thin aluminum with lots of holes in it. The lift was powered by four seat motors placed side by side.

Still, Beatty/Hammond's '97 machine was undoubtedly one of the very best ever for the task at hand, right up there with their 2001 robot. Bill and company have an exceptional knack for figuring out how to play the game each year, and their '97 machine made that year's game seem almost easy as they won their first of three (or is it four?) Championship Events.

Re: #16 Baxter 1998
 

Wow, I wasn't around back then but I would love to see some pics if anyone has them! Sounds like a great bot =)

What? They were in Galileo with us and believe me, we were absolutely overjoyed to be able to invite them in our alliance.. They were hands-down the best team in Galileo and played an huge part in our championship..

Hehe, we had a 12 ft. erecting arm that year. :)

Some of my favorites would include 235's machines. Those guys are wiz's with NC equipment and dangerous on a CATIA tube! Their 2001 machine had powered "go Kart" steering, a beautiful wood plank arm to put the ball on top of the goals and beatifully anodized aluminum throughout. Their 2002 'bot had a "Catapilar" tractor style articulating pivot with mini tread drive and the tethered mini bot. Team 66 also had a neat 'bot last year. We especially liked the mini Penguin. The Huskies (65) had a cool 'bot last year too. Also really dig the 2002 469 bot. 2000 was my inaugural year. I was totally amazed by the Chief's with the swerve, Wildstang's machine was just killer!! Baxter also had a really sweet bot that year too!! As far as our own creations, I love our robot this year. She had a really fast auto mode, very dependable, and looked cool. I keep telling the team that I am taking it home and mounting it to my wall!!
:cool:

Re: #16 Baxter 1998
 

1998 was a great year for robot building. In addition to team 16, teams 47 and 111 had amazing robots. My memories are too vague to describe these robots with any degree of justice. I hope someone who was around in '98 could provide a description. I think most people were shocked that none of 16, 47 and 111 made to the quarter finals. All three teams ran into some horrible luck.

The reason I think there were so many memorable bots from '98 is because it was the last year before alliances. Now many of the top teams focus on specific aspect of the game, knowing that they can get their alliance partner to handle other parts of the game. In the pre-alliance era, teams were forced to try build robots that could do everything. As a result we saw many awe inspiring robots.

I'm a huge fan of the alliance system, but reminiscing about the great bots from '98 makes me long for the days of good old 1 on 1 competition.

Re: Re: #16 Baxter 1998
 

As one of the coaches with Team 45 that year, I remember what happened to Team 16 very well. We were in a match with them and a third team, the identity of which I don't remember. With a few seconds remaining, the human player from the third team threw a ball that knocked one of 16's balls from scoring position. That gave us the win that put us in the quarter finals, and we ended up winning the Big Event that year.

To this day, I don't know if the ball was deliberately intended to descore team 16, of if it was intended for "any opponent" on the field. It is certainly possible that Team 16, Bomb Squad was deliberately targeted because they were a "favorite," while at that time, we TechnoKats were pretty much an unknown team.

One of the most memorable matches ever occurred in '98 at the Houston regional. Team 16 vs 47 in the finals. We waxed them in the first match but the Chief came back for two heart stopping hard fought wins to take the title. We were headed for a showdown at nationals but fell victim to the "two on one" matches and fell before the rematch could materialize.

Greg

The best...
 

my top 5 best robots ever...

5. Beatty in 2001 - Self explanitory...they just couldn't lose.

4. 177 (The Bobcats) in 1998 - This was by far the best robot that didn't win a competition. It was fast, had a revolutionary ball pickup, and their driver was probably the best I have ever seen.

3. Chief Delphi, 2000 - Probably the most amazing machine ever built. It could do nearly everything and was a complete force everytime it was on the field.

2. Tigerbolt, 1996 - For its time, it was amazing. Lightning fast and it scored a perfect round just about EVERY ROUND! Just amazing.

1. Beatty 1997 - This was the most dominating robot ever. 3 seconds...thats all it took and the match was over. I remember watching in amazement, as most teams were just getting over to the human player by the time Beatty had the goal capped with 3 tubes on it. To this day, I still don't know if I could ever come up with the correct strategy to beat that robot, it was just too good.

Dude....Aztechs in 1999.....they had that 8 wheel drive system that glided right over the puck in the first few seconds of the match...for those who don' tknow, they had a 4 wheel main drive system, with 4 more wheels on rotating arms above the main wheels, when they got near the puck, rotated the arms down and in one simple (probably not that easy to control) they just drove over it....absolutely a beautiful robot....chaos from i think 2000, where they were able to steal from the troughs with ease, 60 from last year, and i was most definately impressed with wildstang this year, especially when they cleared out three of the four stacks in autonmous mode in their semifinal win!

Ah yes, the Aztechs!
 

The Aztech 1999 robot did slip my mind. Just to show you how sweet this robot was, in 1999 at River Rage, the Aztechs went up against team 95. That year team 95 tipped the puck at a near 45° angle. In the round where the Aztechs and 95 faced off, the Aztechs got on top of the puck then 95 started tipping the puck trying to remove them from it. Instead of toppling over or sliding off like most robots did, the Aztechs used their articulating wheel system to keep them perpendicular to the ground at all times! It was amazing to see the puck tipped about 45° and the Aztechs sitting on top of it, with a basket full of floppies 8ft in the air...no harm no foul. As for 2000, CHAOS as well as Raider Robotics that year would be among my top teams also. I don't remember many teams who forced you to dramatically change strategy around them as much as these two teams, because they were so dangerous with picking balls out of the goals.

If I recall correctly, team 47 also fell victim to the "two on one" strategy that year as well.

As a response to Brian Beatty's request here is a picture of Wildstang 97. There are also other pictures, recently added at http://www.wildstang.org/ Look under history and our robots.
You will see that our lift is almost fully extended to a working height of 14 feet I think it was. The basket holds 4 toroids and actually rotates over the top of the structure. That allowed us to pick up and align tubes over the PVC pipe, then grab and lift, drive over to the pyramid. (which rotated BTW) Then the claw would rotate up and over all other robots who were positioning on top. During one match, the refs had to borrow a ladder from the janitors to check to see if all the tubes counted. They had to be centered over an imaginary line that ran up through the center of the pyramid and we were so high the refs couldn't tell from the ground. Thanks Brian, I only saw this play at Midwest, it was before my travel days.
Apparently is was also in the days before permanent team numbers because it looks like the number 81 is on the side. I like 111 better, it's easier to remember. Don't look for battery or control system, you won't find them. This was still in the days of Tekin controllers and portable drill batteries plugged into a drill handle for power. One battery per side, chain drive to tank, no ground clearance, lot's of human player action, 1 vs 1 vs 1.

Some corrections
 

I must agree that WildStang's 1997 robot was my favorite, with Chief Delphi's 2000 entry a close 2nd.

Brian: You said that it was amazing that WildStang could extend that tall when it had to start out under 4 feet tall. I could've swore that the height restriction for that year was 3 feet, not 4.

Also for Andy Grady: I must agree that Beatty's 2001 was an amazing robot, and one of the best of all time. However, to say that they couldn't lose is not exactly true. In fact, they DID lose in a post-season invitational. That was a happy moment for me, so I'll never forget it (not happy that they lost, but happy that we were able to beat them).

Al: Permanent numbers started with the 1998 season. We would be team 162 if we didn't take a new number (we changed schools) in 1999.

One last one: I actually like Beatty's 1999 entry as one of my favorites. That robot did everything that year. I was shocked when they lost in the elims at nationals.

-Chris

1998 Bobcat
 

I'm attaching this picture of the '98 Bobcat. I was not part of the team that year, but did get to see Doug and Jessie drive it a lot the following year when I joined the team.

I've often felt that this machine gets overlooked in these discussions (except by Andy Grady). That year 177 took the Quality awards at NH and EPCOT as well as the #1 seed at EPCOT. Unfortunately, they too fell victim to the 2 v. 1 aspect of the early elimination rounds.

As far as my personal favorites from the years I've been doing this, I'd go with:

CD 2000 - incredibly complete and fun to watch
Beatty 2001 - by far the best of the small handfull that figured out how to beat the game that year
Bobcat 2001 - I'm biased, but this was the most versatile ball machine out there and incredibly simple to boot.
Wildstang 2003 - extremely well suited for the game. If you understand a little bit about how their automode works, you are even more amazed. While I'm very happy for Tommy and the gang at 190, I was stunned the 111 did not go home with the Leadership in Controls award.

2003: Team #365

By far my favorite bot!

Um the Delphi bot from 2000 was not all that, At Rutgers our Robot Spike 3 beat it hands down, we were faster, more powerful, and we could hang form the bar. We could steal the oppents black ball before anyone else could"En Fuego" manuver. Team 25 and Team 175 Buzz might remember us teamed with you guys at Rutgers and we won. 25 had the crane bot that year and we delivered the ball to the trough while 25 picked off any balls that the other teams got.
I'm sure anyone from the 2000 season that went to Drexell or Rutgers can remember that. I can get some pics if you like.

A few pics of aztecs that year - i loved their bot also!

Only one bot deserves this title:

Beaty 2002


One word: wow. I did what MOE and Sparky 3 couldn't do and did it well.

ya i definatly agree with you there, while nice, ididnt think CD 2000 was all that powerful.
Our alliance that year was a definate powerhouse, one of my fav alliances ever infact, being paired with buzz and your robot was awesome, that single competition turned our whole "losing/loser" team around.
anyways, you guys were defiantly stronger than CD that year, also i remember a little grasshopper that seemed to give the CD guys some trouble out on the field, in all honest watching them go against each other was hillarious, the outcome was even better.

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

Re: What is the best robot EVER in FIRST?
 

even though I'm a little partial to southeastern teams I'll throw my .02 in, my favorites have to be:
from 2001 team 267....rather try to balance the goal on the ramp they simply lifted the goal straight in the air and place it on the bridge.....an ingenious idea I never saw anyone duplicate that year
2002 teams 180 & 16....180 awesome innovative drive train....16 give them 1 goal and they could easily take the match....
2003 team 312....anyone that saw the autonomous mode can tell you why it was awesome....the entire wall down in the first 3-4 seconds....and not using a telescoping arm....
2004 teams 343 & 33 - MiM was litterally off the charts with the power of their drive train....33 wow could that thing pick up balls....

Re: What is the best robot EVER in FIRST?
 

Well I have only been involved with FIRST for 2 years now but I would have to say my favorite is Team 111's 2003 robot. What we called the "butterfly" could dominate the ramp like no other

Re: What is the best robot EVER in FIRST?
 

My personal favorite is the 2000 Chief Delphi 'bot. It was one of the first robots I saw (besides my own), and it still impresses me, to this day. It was simply an amazing machine in action. Smooth, sleek, and efficient. It really makes me wonder what would've happened had it not broke in the elims at Nationals that year. So, the amazing accomplishments and added potential of that 'bot, and the sheer coolness factor give CD5 my vote for best robot ever in FIRST.

Re: What is the best robot EVER in FIRST?
 

#25 in 2000. Saw it at both the J&J regional and Nationals, still have vivid dreams about it.

-Rc