Robot Ecosystem

[Munchskull]

So this year I have been wondering how the competition scene will turn out. With robot in 3 days and build blitz out there I'm wondering how homogenized robot designs will be. I realize this is a discussion that has happened often, more or less. With that said I would like to discuss how it will affect this year's game in terms of robot design variety.

That said it would also be interesting to see everyone's opinion on the Ri3D robots. Which is your favorite? How competitive are they? How will those designs affect the "Robot Ecosystem"? What types of robots do you predict to see at competitions?

[MrForbes]

I expect a wide variety of robots. Should be fun!

[Ginger Power]

As captain of The GreenHorns I'd probably say our robot wouldn't make it to the playoffs. I really hope that's the case anyways. The whole point of Ri3D at least in my opinion is to inspire teams, and raise the competitive floor (without just giving away "the answer"). I hope our robot, which was built in 3 days by freshman and sophomore college students, is in the absolute lowest echelon of competitiveness. If it isn't then I would consider our efforts of inspiration to be a failure. I really want to see teams use our concepts and be successful with them. More importantly, however, I want to see them improve on our design and learn from the experience.

As for the homogenizization of robots due to Ri3D, I don't think it will happen this year to the extent it has the past 2 years. Given the rules, most notably the transport configuration and relating rules, I believe we will see incredible design diversity.

[Munchskull]

I whole heartedly agree with you. I expect to see some diverse robots this year as well. I think that the way Ri3D happen this year was great, the teams displayed a nice range of solutions that teams can build upon. However I do expect to see a TON of single stage elevators this year.