[Mike McIntyre]

The GM Award for Technical Excellence has a very general criteria that looks for design features and applications on the robots that show imagination or some other special technical attribute. The judges at W. Bloomfield cited the turret system, versatile end-effector design, and the unusual use of pneumatics in awarding OTCNE the prize. The judges are comparing apples and oranges here, but they do not use competition results as their main criteria: that's what the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place awards are for. Teams can win more than one award (witness Avondale). Each tournament has a different mix of judges, so there's no telling what will catch the eye of the next group. Did anyone else hear the head judge say that they decided not to give awards to teams that were not following the safety rules? I didn't catch the exact wording but I love the sentiment!