[l1jmx]

Although this game seems to tend towards one of 2 different designs, I have still seen a number of very innovative robots out there.

Yeah, the majority of people are either A) tanks, or B) something resembling a robotic scorpion. We were going to name our robot the something or other scorpion until like 5 teams beat us to it. The combination of claws for holding the goal and some sort of ramp/bin for moving balls into just favors the shape, and I guess people think scorpion sounds cooler than "clawed giraffe."

Anyways, some of the very cool designs I have seen are Team 857's bot, with the 3 omniwheels, and another robot whose number I can't remember at the moment where the robot actually sort of folded out to grab onto 3 sides of the goal (and place themselves in a position to allow for much better torques on the goal /manueverability while dragging it).

There are also some other aspects of the challenge that a number of teams simply failed to observe such as the necessity to hold your goal in your zone while at the same time scoring points back in your home zone, as well as the issue of guranteeting that the opposing team scores points. As some other people have pointed out though, I guess it boils down to whether you want to do something boring and have a chance of winning, or do something amazing for the fun of it. I think there there was plenty of room for low-budget innovation whether or not all of the teams capitalized on it.