National Competition Reactions & Opinions

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Posted by Jeff Burch, Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Delco Electronics Systems.

Posted on 4/27/99 10:20 AM MST


In Reply to: i'd agree with tom posted by colleen on 4/26/99 6:43 PM MST:




I agree there are some kinks to worked out in the qualification process, but I think the alliance concept is the best thing to happen to the competition since it moved to Epcot. The alliances really emphasize the importance of scouting and our students took it much more seriously this year than in the past. In previous years we pretty much had a strategy and tried to stick to it in each match; the scout sheets rarely forced a change to this strategy.

This year it was extremely important to know the capabilities of other teams, and not just the ones you'll play with/against in the matches. To win, your strategy needs to adapt to match the capabilities of your alliance partner and opponents. You also need to find alliance partners to pick or that will pick you. We got to know other teams better and made more friends on other teams this year than ever before and it's all because of having alliances.

Several of my team members have been talking about one change we would really like to see next year that would make the qualifying matches a little more fair. I think there should be minimum functionality requirements of every robot before they are allowed to compete. This would prevent teams from getting paired with robots that can't even leave the starting gate.

This minimum functionality would be checked during inspection. Teams that meet these requirements at a regional would not have to be re-tested. Minimum requirements could be things like the ability to move at a minimum rate for a minimum distance, ability to turn, and at least one additional function related to the competition requirements (for this year: climb puck, grab post, hold a minimum number of floppies, etc.). I don't think this list is too demanding, but it would force teams to focus on having some basic functionality first and building from that rather than trying to build the ultimate robot right from the start and ending up with a box on wheels.

Comments?