[Jim Zondag]

Paul is right, being able to control acceleration is the key to this game, at least as far as mobility is concerned.

The demo at the kickoff where they drag raced the 2 robots is a great example of this. From the audio, you can hear that these robots were spinning their wheels under full thottle for about 7 seconds. Estimating the distance they both travelled in this time puts their approximate acceleration at ~.8ft/s^2. This is only about half of the theoretical maximum acceleration rate of 1.61. Why? because rapidly spinning the wheels (burning out) greatly reduces the coefficient of friction. It looks like it drops by ~50% or so in this case.

Thus, if you can figure out a good way to optimize your acceleration rate (AKA Traction Control), you will be able to easily out run anyone else who has not done so. Of course, you can only run until you get to a field boundary, but like with all games, getting there first is always a big advantage.