[Ed Law]

It may be easy to look at this from another point of view for people who thinks that FIRST Robots are just machines during teleoperated mode and not robot. Is it just an expensive remote controlled vehicle?

What is the definition of a remote control car? My definition and the common definition is that a remote control car will do exactly what you tell it to do. If you move a joystick, it will move. It will never disobey you unless the battery runs out. I would argue that a FIRST robot with sensors is not a remote control vehicle. It is because even in teleoperated mode, it may behave differently than what your joystick says. It just takes your input as a suggestion and together with other input, makes a decision what to do. It does that to protect itself from damage, to stay within the envelop/rules or for whatever reasons that it was programmed to do. You may think that you are remotely controlling the robot but you are not. Since it exhibits artificial intelligence, it should be classified as a robot.

On the other hand, a FIRST Robot that does not use sensors during teleoperated mode is a remote control vehicle.