[Halon]

Wow. I was just thinking the exact same thing yesterday. So many teams were using only drill motors or Atwoods for drive, and I was commenting on how the drill setup would be pushing it even for a lightweight combat robot and how my 12 pounder could outpush many of the FIRST robots out there. The drill motors/transmissions are nice, but are not suited for 130 pound robots. And then, to top that off, everything is running off of 12v. Upping the voltage and not using the hefty SLAs would be a huge improvement in my mind. Although most FIRST robots are severely underpowered, you have to keep in mind that we're driving on carpet here. And the ruleset is much longer than it needs to be. I don't think teams really need a set wire gauge or circuit breakers or anything like that.

I have to disagree with you on one of your comments, though. The robots in the finals were all pretty amazing.

Another awesome robotic combat club is MURC (Mid U.S. Robotics Club).