[EricH]

Originally Posted by MarcoVi

It's just that wood is typically a weaker material than aluminum, and on a game more based on contact, they can suffer.

Let's just say that I've seen quite a few wood bots out there, and haven't heard of too many of them getting damaged as much as you seem to think they would be. For instance, 4183 ran over a prototype frame with an older car. The car suffered a flat tire on the second attempt. I think the frame is still going.

Please don't make such a blanket statement. Wood can be nearly as strong as aluminum; it depends on the application and grade of wood in question. Gimme some baltic birch ply of appropriate grade, a laser cutter, and some proper adhesive, and I could probably build a frame that can take a beating that an aluminum bot would show battle scars from, too. I could also build an aluminum frame that would fall apart or break the first time another robot hit it. (6061 T0 aluminum, anybody?)

Also, different materials are strong in different ways. This particular fact is what makes materials engineering so interesting of a field should you choose to go deeper into that statement and enjoy the research.