The 4 Big Questions!

[Mike Soukup]

Thanks Andy, we can always count on you for a good FIRST related question. Lets try to keep it on topic.

Question #1: What is the object? (i.e. Balls, Bins, Tubes, Floppies...)
Cheap volleyballs in the middle of the field, half of them red & half of them blue (at least I'm hoping it will be something that's more fun to throw around than the bins)

Question #2: What is the goal? (i.e. Large moving tower, puck, goal post...)
Some tall non-movable goals near the player stations where the balls are placed for scoring. The scores will be tallied at the end based on the number of balls of each color in each goal. I envision that the goals being placed at opposite ends of the field will put an emphasis on fast bots that can move quickly from end to end. There will also be some scoring based on robot position but I can't come up with anything original right now, my mind is tainted by previous games.

Question #3: What is the special playing field surface trait? (i.e. Ramp, Water, Corn...)
Carpet like all the previous years, but there will be large movable obsticles in the field that don't count for points. They're only used for blocking other robots. The obsticles will put an emphasis on maneuverable bots that can get around blockades or strong bots that can bust through blockades or hold a blockade in place.

Question #4: What will be the most contraversial rule?
They'll move autonomous to the middle and most teams won't be able to adapt and we'll see much of what we did last year where teams have unsuccessful autonomous modes. Or they'll move autonomous to the end and what I previously stated holds true plus the end of the match will be the most boring we've seen in years.

I'm probably wrong about all 4, but I had fun anyway. Lets hear some other wild ideas.

Hopefully FIRST will give us a game that forces us to create a variety of robots. After 2 years of games dominated by short boxes on wheels we need some robots that extend vertically or have arms.

Mike