In the summer of 1999 we were working very hard to introduce the idea of the (then) new Southern California Regional Competition. A scrimmage match was held at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, and lots of local potential sponsors and prospective teams were invited. The scrimmage was staged on the central mall at JPL, in front of the main headquarters building.
We figured, southern California in the early summer, holding it outside would be perfect, right? Wrong! Fourteen teams (I don't remember all the teams that were there, but the BeachBots and the Archer School for Girls stick out in my memory) arrived early that morning, just to be greeted by a day of rain and drizzle cascading on to the uncovered play field. We thought we would have to call off the event, but someone suggested we give it a shot and see what happens.
All fourteen robots worked successfully all day. Throughout the matches, robots ran across the field in up to two inches of standing water. After matches the teams took robots back to the pits (the only dry areas under small tents) to wipe them down and sop up the excess water. But they were all constructed well enough that I don't think we had one short all day, and every machine was still running by the end of the scrimmage. All the teams had paid attention to the rules (yes, everyone actually read all the rules back then!
) and all electical connections were thoroughly taped and/or insulated, and withstood the moisture for the duration of their exposure to the rain. We were all pretty impressed by how well the robots (and team members) were able to withstand the extra "environmental constraint" and continue on. Somewhere in my files I have some great photos of rooster tails of water shedding off the wheels of some of the robots as they raced around the field.
Just one more point in the empirical data set of FIRST robot performances...
- dave
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