[Al Skierkiewicz]

The placebo robot was used early in FIRST competitions before the alliance concept came into being. Three or four robots played against each other. When there were not a lot of teams sooner or later a match would take place that didn't have enough teams to fill all the slots. In comes the placebo which either was driven by volunteers from the audience or just ran random around the playing field. The one year I remember, the placebo was a Hoover vacuum cleaner.