[Katy]

I think perhaps the larger problem with an autonomous period at the end would be having the drivers let go of the controls on time...imagine it. Pairs of tense high school students their sweaty hands wrapped around the controllers in a death grip praying their robot will make it that last five inches...four...three...two...

...and then a little noise comes and they all gracefully let go of their controls and let their robots move into autonomous mode?

Erp...I can imagine quite a few judge/driver disagreements on "was the driver touching the controls or not"

I find the truncated pyramid very interesting. The sides make me wonder however. Either the incline on the sides would have to be very shallow or the robots would have to be very clever to hang on without damaging the playing piece but at the same time not roll off when the power is cut.

This makes me think...what if the sides were also flat and the playing piece looked like steps instead?

This also fits with the idea of "show" or third place. In the Olympics and such winners stand on a series of platforms. The winner stands in the middle on a higher stand while the second and third place winners stand on shorter platforms on either side. This configuration is a pretty good match to the profile of what the playing piece could look like if the sides of the truncated pyramid were changed to flat planes that were lower steps.

The top view would look just the same as the top view of the truncated pyramid. The side view would look like a shape from tetris...don't know a better way to describe it.

Anyway...I'm not sure how that looks like a shovel but...it fits most of the other requirements.