[Travis Hoffman]

I was forwarded an email from a person who attended the Michigan team forum. These are the notes he took at that event:

There's a LOT of interesting information provided here....

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From FIRST rep.
2003 Season
- Ramp too expensive and not portable for show & tell events
- Need to improve robot inspection. Not consistent
- Referees decision were not consistent from regional to regional
2004 Season
- More information ahead of time to prepare and train students for competition, i.e. kit information, motor info.
- Kick-off - Jan 10, 2004
- Regional competition starts March 4, 2004 for 5 weeks (skip Easter weekend)
- In addition to current regional, (3) more will be added - Detroit, Colorado and S. Carolina
- Championship either 4/15-17 or 4/22-24
- FIRST currently taking and reviewing bids from three sites for Championship (contract will be for three years). Site decision will be made in July and announced early
- Disney Sport (not EPCOT)
- Atlanta
- Houston
- Innovation FIRST upgrading Robot Controller
- Upgrade to EDUBot
- Rookie kit will include air compressor & battery charger. Veteran kits will not have these items, but team can purchase.
- Pneumatic is given more freedom for number of valve and cylinders size
- Battery - can use any from past years. Battery charger - can use any with less than 6 amps charging

Comments from other teams
- Autonomous good element to game but dangerous. Field not designed to contain autonomous robot. Robot going out of field at different regional.
- Current controller and sensor not designed for autonomous mode due to processing speed.
- Not enough safety precaution with autonomous mode. A student was hurt during debugging of autonomous mode.
- Need debug field for autonomous mode. Practice field is not enough time for a proper job. Teams were using make shift debug area that were not safe.
- Game need to be design more for top mechanism design. Last two years robot have been designed with box and strong powertrain.
- 2002 year - pushing match
- This year - test of kinetic force
- Past games were more designed for innovative top end design with hooks, lifts, etc.
- Team updates need to be more frequent early in the season to answer questions faster.
- Scoring - modify or eliminate winner get portion of loser score. Once you score a point via ball or tubs, make it so points can not be taken away easily.
- Make list of kit items available early, so if teams do not need certain items, they can choose not to receive items for credit. May be difficult to implement logistically.
- Need to revise team seeding match system. Current system was not randomized.
- Set up supplier (such as MSC or McMaster) to supply kit from catalog. This way, team will only order required item and not have wasted items around.