[EricH]

Originally Posted by nitsua60

I've been away from the game for 10 years and am returning as a rookie mentor. Is there anywhere that documents the various successful (and spectacularly unsuccessful) teams from year to year? Their strategies, tactics, designs, and capabilities? I'd love to read up and have some of my kids learn more about the different year's challenges and contendors. Thanks,

-mca

Other than Chief Delphi, I would HIGHLY recommend The Blue Alliance (TBA) as a source on this. For anything 2006 or newer, they probably have match video to watch.

Next up: the two Behind the Design books (FIRST Robots: Behind the Design and Behind the Design: Rack n' Roll ) cover 30 designs each from 2006 and 2007 respectively. These were developed by FIRST and published by Rockport Publishing. As a team, you want at least one of the two, and probably both. We're talking the next best thing to sticking your head in a top-quality robot.

There are some legends out there that you may have missed: Beatty 2002, for example. Look around Chief Delphi for that robot. This is widely held to be one of the best FRC robots ever.

For the rules, FIRST has some old manuals up on their website. You might look through those, as there have been a lot of changes from your time. Alliance size is the biggest.

If you'd like to PM or email me, go ahead and I'll see if I can help you out.