[ChrisH]

Old Beachbot status:

1998 - You remember that warehouse scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark? It's there somewhere.
1999 - we still have a few pieces around
2000 - Same as 1999
2001 - used as a test bed for 2002 drive, now it is a backup robot cart and is mostly stripped
2002 - Needs new trannys, a couple of cylinders, and a brain
2003 - still runs but won't shift, trannys are worn out
2004 - Became 2005 practice bot, used this year for gripper development still runs but needs original software re-installed to work as designed
2005 - (Champ Robot) tends to get modified less than the rest, but was picking up tubes by 5pm on Kickoff day
2006 - Camera test platform

As you can see, early on we scrapped our robots. But more recently we have learned that having a fleet of robots with different capabilities can be real handy. For example, while 05 was physically similar to our final design it was strictly electric powered, but 04 had a pre-existing pnuematic system and a pivoting arm. So 04 was used to develop our arm and gripper, at least until our 07 practice bot came on-line.