Quote:
Originally posted by Christina
But now, he's on a stupid hovercraft thing. Hmm...well...perhaps it'll get him to stop trying to sneak helicopter designs into the plans for next years robot.
~Christina ºoº
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Shoulda been around a bit more. Back when the competition were run with three teams competing against each other at the same time, the numbers wouldn't always work out right, and a robot was needed to fill the spot. Hence the Placebo was born.
The Placebo took on a life of it's own, and in it's glory years (1996 and 1997) it had it's two best designs.
In 1996 it was a full hovercraft, built from kit parts. (well, almost kit parts, it featured 4 drill motors to our 2 but you get the point) It did well, although the FIRST people had a hard time controlling it.
In 1997, the Placebo took on the shape of a vacuum cleaner. Yep. It was a remote control, upright Eureka vacuum cleaner. The Placebo did well this year, it suffered some mechaincal diffuicluties, but it did manage to score some points (well some teams, ours namely, would drop inner tubs (toroids) onto the handle, which counted as points.)
In 1998, FIRST fielded a black square box in place of anything. Many crowds of people were disappointed.
In 1999, FIRST changed the way the game was played, and eliminated the need for a placebo.
I have no surviving pictures of the Placebo, would anyone care to post some, or link to them?