[magnets]

One of the teams I'm working with this year is considering switching their robot to an autonomous container grabber if they qualify for the championship. The "robot" would be four container grabbers. I don't want to disclose the exact strategy, but let's just say they have a good chance to win almost any container grab competition.

At first, I dismissed it as crazy. Sure, containers from the step are important, but can you really justify picking a robot that can only do one thing? After autonomous mode, the robot doesn't move - not the most exciting thing ever.

A few nights ago, a student and his brother came to me and explained why they thought it was worth it. They would only make the change if/when they were at the championships. After watching teams play, it's clear that a good team can make two full 42 point stacks. It's not unimaginable that two of these teams could end up together on an alliance at the championship. If these teams each scored their two stacks, and we grabbed the auto containers, the other teams would have to stack 21 totes to make up for our fourth stack and tie with us. It gets even better if the other two teams score more points. I was worried that this alliance might not make it out of quarterfinals, but the four team alliances would let us sit out and the other three bots rack up points to boost our average. In semis, we'd score fewer points, but we'd severely limit the number of points our opponents can score.

What do you guys think? Is it worth it, or are we just crazy? How desirable is the ability to be amazingly good at grabbing center containers? If we're the best at it, are we sure to be picked?