What is the best robot EVER in FIRST?

[Kit Gerhart]

Originally posted by Karthik
I think most people were shocked that none of 16, 47 and 111 made to the quarter finals. All three teams ran into some horrible luck.

As one of the coaches with Team 45 that year, I remember what happened to Team 16 very well. We were in a match with them and a third team, the identity of which I don't remember. With a few seconds remaining, the human player from the third team threw a ball that knocked one of 16's balls from scoring position. That gave us the win that put us in the quarter finals, and we ended up winning the Big Event that year.

To this day, I don't know if the ball was deliberately intended to descore team 16, of if it was intended for "any opponent" on the field. It is certainly possible that Team 16, Bomb Squad was deliberately targeted because they were a "favorite," while at that time, we TechnoKats were pretty much an unknown team.

[Greg Mills]

One of the most memorable matches ever occurred in '98 at the Houston regional. Team 16 vs 47 in the finals. We waxed them in the first match but the Chief came back for two heart stopping hard fought wins to take the title. We were headed for a showdown at nationals but fell victim to the "two on one" matches and fell before the rematch could materialize.

Greg

[Andy Grady]

my top 5 best robots ever...

5. Beatty in 2001 - Self explanitory...they just couldn't lose.

4. 177 (The Bobcats) in 1998 - This was by far the best robot that didn't win a competition. It was fast, had a revolutionary ball pickup, and their driver was probably the best I have ever seen.

3. Chief Delphi, 2000 - Probably the most amazing machine ever built. It could do nearly everything and was a complete force everytime it was on the field.

2. Tigerbolt, 1996 - For its time, it was amazing. Lightning fast and it scored a perfect round just about EVERY ROUND! Just amazing.

1. Beatty 1997 - This was the most dominating robot ever. 3 seconds...thats all it took and the match was over. I remember watching in amazement, as most teams were just getting over to the human player by the time Beatty had the goal capped with 3 tubes on it. To this day, I still don't know if I could ever come up with the correct strategy to beat that robot, it was just too good.

[Deej]

Dude....Aztechs in 1999.....they had that 8 wheel drive system that glided right over the puck in the first few seconds of the match...for those who don' tknow, they had a 4 wheel main drive system, with 4 more wheels on rotating arms above the main wheels, when they got near the puck, rotated the arms down and in one simple (probably not that easy to control) they just drove over it....absolutely a beautiful robot....chaos from i think 2000, where they were able to steal from the troughs with ease, 60 from last year, and i was most definately impressed with wildstang this year, especially when they cleared out three of the four stacks in autonmous mode in their semifinal win!

[Andy Grady]

The Aztech 1999 robot did slip my mind. Just to show you how sweet this robot was, in 1999 at River Rage, the Aztechs went up against team 95. That year team 95 tipped the puck at a near 45° angle. In the round where the Aztechs and 95 faced off, the Aztechs got on top of the puck then 95 started tipping the puck trying to remove them from it. Instead of toppling over or sliding off like most robots did, the Aztechs used their articulating wheel system to keep them perpendicular to the ground at all times! It was amazing to see the puck tipped about 45° and the Aztechs sitting on top of it, with a basket full of floppies 8ft in the air...no harm no foul. As for 2000, CHAOS as well as Raider Robotics that year would be among my top teams also. I don't remember many teams who forced you to dramatically change strategy around them as much as these two teams, because they were so dangerous with picking balls out of the goals.

[Karthik]

Originally posted by Greg Mills
One of the most memorable matches ever occurred in '98 at the Houston regional. Team 16 vs 47 in the finals. We waxed them in the first match but the Chief came back for two heart stopping hard fought wins to take the title. We were headed for a showdown at nationals but fell victim to the "two on one" matches and fell before the rematch could materialize.

Greg

If I recall correctly, team 47 also fell victim to the "two on one" strategy that year as well.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

As a response to Brian Beatty's request here is a picture of Wildstang 97. There are also other pictures, recently added at http://www.wildstang.org/ Look under history and our robots.
You will see that our lift is almost fully extended to a working height of 14 feet I think it was. The basket holds 4 toroids and actually rotates over the top of the structure. That allowed us to pick up and align tubes over the PVC pipe, then grab and lift, drive over to the pyramid. (which rotated BTW) Then the claw would rotate up and over all other robots who were positioning on top. During one match, the refs had to borrow a ladder from the janitors to check to see if all the tubes counted. They had to be centered over an imaginary line that ran up through the center of the pyramid and we were so high the refs couldn't tell from the ground. Thanks Brian, I only saw this play at Midwest, it was before my travel days.
Apparently is was also in the days before permanent team numbers because it looks like the number 81 is on the side. I like 111 better, it's easier to remember. Don't look for battery or control system, you won't find them. This was still in the days of Tekin controllers and portable drill batteries plugged into a drill handle for power. One battery per side, chain drive to tank, no ground clearance, lot's of human player action, 1 vs 1 vs 1.

[Chris Hibner]

I must agree that WildStang's 1997 robot was my favorite, with Chief Delphi's 2000 entry a close 2nd.

Brian: You said that it was amazing that WildStang could extend that tall when it had to start out under 4 feet tall. I could've swore that the height restriction for that year was 3 feet, not 4.

Also for Andy Grady: I must agree that Beatty's 2001 was an amazing robot, and one of the best of all time. However, to say that they couldn't lose is not exactly true. In fact, they DID lose in a post-season invitational. That was a happy moment for me, so I'll never forget it (not happy that they lost, but happy that we were able to beat them).

Al: Permanent numbers started with the 1998 season. We would be team 162 if we didn't take a new number (we changed schools) in 1999.

One last one: I actually like Beatty's 1999 entry as one of my favorites. That robot did everything that year. I was shocked when they lost in the elims at nationals.

-Chris

[P.J. Baker]

I'm attaching this picture of the '98 Bobcat. I was not part of the team that year, but did get to see Doug and Jessie drive it a lot the following year when I joined the team.

I've often felt that this machine gets overlooked in these discussions (except by Andy Grady). That year 177 took the Quality awards at NH and EPCOT as well as the #1 seed at EPCOT. Unfortunately, they too fell victim to the 2 v. 1 aspect of the early elimination rounds.

As far as my personal favorites from the years I've been doing this, I'd go with:

CD 2000 - incredibly complete and fun to watch
Beatty 2001 - by far the best of the small handfull that figured out how to beat the game that year
Bobcat 2001 - I'm biased, but this was the most versatile ball machine out there and incredibly simple to boot.
Wildstang 2003 - extremely well suited for the game. If you understand a little bit about how their automode works, you are even more amazed. While I'm very happy for Tommy and the gang at 190, I was stunned the 111 did not go home with the Leadership in Controls award.

[Fighters]

2003: Team #365

[anish]

By far my favorite bot!

[Spikey]

Um the Delphi bot from 2000 was not all that, At Rutgers our Robot Spike 3 beat it hands down, we were faster, more powerful, and we could hang form the bar. We could steal the oppents black ball before anyone else could"En Fuego" manuver. Team 25 and Team 175 Buzz might remember us teamed with you guys at Rutgers and we won. 25 had the crane bot that year and we delivered the ball to the trough while 25 picked off any balls that the other teams got.
I'm sure anyone from the 2000 season that went to Drexell or Rutgers can remember that. I can get some pics if you like.

[Tom Schindler]

Originally posted by Deej
Dude....Aztechs in 1999.....they had that 8 wheel drive system that glided right over the puck in the first few seconds of the match...for those who don' tknow, they had a 4 wheel main drive system, with 4 more wheels on rotating arms above the main wheels, when they got near the puck, rotated the arms down and in one simple (probably not that easy to control) they just drove over it....absolutely a beautiful robot....chaos from i think 2000, where they were able to steal from the troughs with ease, 60 from last year, and i was most definately impressed with wildstang this year, especially when they cleared out three of the four stacks in autonmous mode in their semifinal win!

A few pics of aztecs that year - i loved their bot also!

[Joe Matt]

Only one bot deserves this title:

Beaty 2002


One word: wow. I did what MOE and Sparky 3 couldn't do and did it well.

[ssjcell]

Originally posted by Spikey
Um the Delphi bot from 2000 was not all that, At Rutgers our Robot Spike 3 beat it hands down, we were faster, more powerful, and we could hang form the bar. We could steal the oppents black ball before anyone else could"En Fuego" manuver. Team 25 and Team 175 Buzz might remember us teamed with you guys at Rutgers and we won. 25 had the crane bot that year and we delivered the ball to the trough while 25 picked off any balls that the other teams got.
I'm sure anyone from the 2000 season that went to Drexell or Rutgers can remember that. I can get some pics if you like.

ya i definatly agree with you there, while nice, ididnt think CD 2000 was all that powerful.
Our alliance that year was a definate powerhouse, one of my fav alliances ever infact, being paired with buzz and your robot was awesome, that single competition turned our whole "losing/loser" team around.
anyways, you guys were defiantly stronger than CD that year, also i remember a little grasshopper that seemed to give the CD guys some trouble out on the field, in all honest watching them go against each other was hillarious, the outcome was even better.