[jman4747]

Robots will continue to look quite similar due to the rules. There is only so much anyone can do differently. And even if they don't look the same most will fundamentally operate the same. I wouldn't call one robot running WCD with belt on vex pro 4in DT versa wheels all that unique from one running colsons with #25 chain. Evidently teams will narrow down to the easiest, most consistent, and cost effective method to play the game. Then you have set actuators, controls, weight, size, battery capacity. It is very hard not to "copy" someone out there. Unless the rules got much looser not to much will be worth doing too differently from anyone else. This is of coarse from the view of lowest cost, build time, and build difficulty for a given performance level. If you care less about these than the limit is infinity.

If there is one area I see realy meaningful advancement in it is code, controls, and sensing.