[548swimmer]

Agreed, I find this an extremely interesting concept, and believe it is not needed. On my team, we rely heavily on science and technology to support our robot. For example, decisions such as plate thickness and flange locations aren't okayed without FEA. This is an incorporation of the technology element. We're also forced to experiment with new designs each year, incorporating the science element.

I would be interested in some sort of comptetion other than robots, maybe something like Formula or Baja where we need to build something that a human can drive. There are obvious issues with this, saftey being the primary one. Simply limiting the maximum speeds of the vehicles would eliminate much of the point to a competition like this, so they'd have to be extremely creative in how they ensure driver's saftey.

All in all, I think that FIRST should expand beyond only robots, though not for the sake of incorporating more science and technology.