Best Robot Ever 92-07 edition

[Tim Baird]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

ChiefDelphi in 2000

I agree. That robot would go from "in the box" to GIGANTIC in the first few seconds of the match, and then just dominate the rest of the round.

[dtengineering]

Originally Posted by EricH

... I'll add that the best one is the one that inspires the most people.

Hmmm... perhaps we need to discriminate between the "Best" robot... and the "Greatest" robot of all time FIRST action. The Best Robot could be defined as the robot that was the most outstandingly dominant robot at the game it was designed to play, while the Greatest Robot would be the one that had the most lasting impact or influence and that inspired the most excitement and passion amongst those watching.

I can't help but think that someone... somewhere... brought the first mecanum drive machine to a FIRST competition... or the first two (or three or four) speed gearbox... and used those techniques to achieve competitive success.

I know that one of my all time favorites was 1241's rookie machine in 2004 that would position itself underneath the rack holding the balls, and then open up and catch 80% or so of them as they fell, deliver them to the human player and then... once the goal was filled up... cap it with the doubling ball.

In all-time FIRST action, no... not the best robot, perhaps... but as we were rookies that year too it really opened my eyes to the number of different ways that you could play the game (especially when an opponent stuffed a doubling ball into their hopper, blocking them from catching the balls). It has probably had as much of a lasting inspiration or influence on me as any other machine. (Although 33 was pretty darn good that year, too.)

Jason

P.S. As for the comment that 1114 "only lost two qualifying matches this year" earlier in the thread.... one of those was when their radio suffered an inexplicable glitch leaving them dead-on-the-carpet for over half the match.

[Cory]

My best list, from 2001 to present--

2001: 71, 254
2002 60, 71, 469, 173, 121, 16
2003: 111, 25, 469
2004: 254, 60, 45, 469, 33
2005: 67, 254, 217, 56, 330
2006: 1114, 469, 217, 111
2007: 330, 1114, 233, 148

Normally I wouldn't list my own team, but prior to joining 254 in 2006 they would have held the same position(s) on my list as they do now.

[MattB703]

I can't believe there hasn't been a single vote for 1114 in 2004. I know it wasn't the most dominant robot of the year, but it definately has my vote for the biggest "cool factor".

ps
I also have to agree with cheifdelphi 2000, and 71 in 2001.

[xzvrw2]

i was going to put them up there on my "if it wasnt for these teams" post but i only wanted to put up a couple teams per year. i could list all of the ones i think were like that but it would be a very long list.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by MattB703

I can't believe there hasn't been a single vote for 1114 in 2004. I know it wasn't the most dominant robot of the year, but it definately has my vote for the biggest "cool factor".

That robot was definitely awesome, but i dont think it can take "best robot ever"....


Ive got to give it to Beatty of '02..

I choose not to give it to Beatty of '01 because Beatty of '02 competed against other robots (not saying what 71 did in 01 was not impressive).

What impressed me most about Beatty of '02 was not their robot (not that their machine was flawed, which it was nearly flawless)..but how they so perfectly heard the game and predicted winning was in the goals.

Its a very bold move to say ok, we want our robot to move 30 feet....the entire match, but we're gonna do it so perfectly no one can stop us.

Their strategy combined with amazing engineering wins them best robot ever in my eyes...71 in '02

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

What impressed me most about Beatty of '02 was not their robot (not that their machine was flawed, which it was nearly flawless)..but how they so perfectly heard the game and predicted winning was in the goals.

Not to take anything away from Beatty--I completely agree with your analysis, and they're my second or third favorite robot ever, but it's worth noting that 173 bailed them out on Einstein with balls, which was what ended up winning the championship.

[xzvrw2]

Originally Posted by Cory

Not to take anything away from Beatty--I completely agree with your analysis, and they're my second or third favorite robot ever, but it's worth noting that 173 bailed them out on Einstein with balls, which was what ended up winning the championship.

thats why i say that 173 was the best robot that year.

i did like 47s bot that year too tho...not saying it was the best, but i liked it

[KingBK]

25's robot in 2006 was amazing. My team was in their alliance in new jersey and even though they were guarded the were still scoring. but in my mind the best was 56's robot in 2005. I've never seen anybody dominate as many matches single handedly as they did.

[Dan Petrovic]

Originally Posted by xzvrw2

thats why i say that 173 [in 2002] was the best robot that year.

Twice, I watched 121 beat 173.

Once at the UTC Regional, and once at Battlecry 3.

121's robot was better than 173's robot in 2002. (IMO, of course)

[xzvrw2]

Originally Posted by InfernoX14

Twice, I watched 121 beat 173.

Once at the UTC Regional, and once at Battlecry 3.

121's robot was better than 173's robot in 2002. (IMO, of course)

this is all opinion of course haha
121 always puts up a solid robot.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

Hmmm... perhaps we need to discriminate between the "Best" robot... and the "Greatest" robot of all time FIRST action. The Best Robot could be defined as the robot that was the most outstandingly dominant robot at the game it was designed to play, while the Greatest Robot would be the one that had the most lasting impact or influence and that inspired the most excitement and passion amongst those watching.

I can't help but think that someone... somewhere... brought the first mecanum drive machine to a FIRST competition... or the first two (or three or four) speed gearbox... and used those techniques to achieve competitive success.

If we're looking for the bots that have inspired the most people, there are a few that stand out.
Chief Delphi, with the first bot in FIRST with "omni-directional" motion with their swerve drive. The bots would be going at it, and all of a sudden 47 would start strafing. Amazing.
45's 2-speed dog shifter. I'm not sure if the Technokats were the first to use a dog shifter or a 2-speed in FIRST, but they inspired the most. Their transmission is the ancestor to most in FIRST today (most obviously the AndyMarks). They inspired generations of FIRSTers to design new multi-speed transmissions, and improve on upon their design. Even aside of the AM Shifters, descendant drives can still be found on robots today (such as the 4-speed cluster shifter of 1126, 379's 2-speed, and 716's drive).
857's kiwi-drive in 2002. The first vector-based system in FIRST, this 3-wheeled holonomic drive sent ripples through FIRST like few systems ever will. The popularity of holonomic and mecanum systems today can directly be linked to this bot.
Guess what, I'm gonna mention 45 again! Their roller claw way back in '98 demonstrated a quick and efficient way of manipulating single balls (and tubes, as proven in '07).

Originally Posted by Scott Ritchie

2006- Possibly 71 at IRI

If we're going to count single events, I couldn't agree more. I (and many others) doubted Team Hammond going into IRI 2006. They proved that doubting 71 is ALWAYS a mistake. During the elimination matches, nobody put on a more dominating performance at an event packed with dominant teams. Some of the teams most frequently mentioned in this thread for the best robots in 2006 (25, 1114, and 217) lost to 71 during the eliminations (not to mention 494, 233, and 33).

[Andy Grady]

I still go back to the Beatty robot from 1997. By far, more dominant than any other robot since...including the dominating 2001 Beatty robot.

Go back and look at the video (if you can find it)...

Beatty, stops at human player, turns around, caps, game over in 6 seconds. We timed it.

Name me a robot in the past 16 years that could win a match in 6 seconds? I think you'd be hard pressed to find one.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Andy Grady

I still go back to the Beatty robot from 1997. By far, more dominant than any other robot since...including the dominating 2001 Beatty robot.

Go back and look at the video (if you can find it)...

Beatty, stops at human player, turns around, caps, game over in 6 seconds. We timed it.

Name me a robot in the past 16 years that could win a match in 6 seconds? I think you'd be hard pressed to find one.

Could you describe what they did and what their strategy was?

[Andy Grady]

In 1997, the main objective of the game was to take innertubes and hang them on a goal much similar to the one we had this year. The difference was you could get big points for scoring on the apex of the goal. Many teams would actually have a cap which you could load up with tubes and place on the apex. What Beatty did, was unfold, stop at the human player so the human player could place his whole stack on the cap. They then would turn around and cap the apex of the goal. Each tube on the cap would double the score. From there, they would score on the lower rungs to offset any teams who capped over the cap they had on the goal.

They were nearly unstoppable, though Delphi did get to them in one round.