Less Interest in Robots in the pits this year?

[sanddrag]

This year it seemed like there was a major reduction of people asking in depth questions about robots in the pits. Likewise, there seemed to be a major reduction of the number of people going in depth talking about features of their robots? Did anyone else notice this? Maybe it is because 2/3 of the robots had the same gearbox, and many robots had similar arms? A lack of variety perhaps? Or maybe it is because there aren't many robots that really stick out at being effective at the game; they are all pretty good?

I don't know. To me, it really seemed like we didn't get any "oh how'd you guys do that?" or "what makes that work?" or "do you have drawings for this mechanism?" or "I really like the way you..." etc questions/comments while in the pits.

In 2003 when we linked together a Chiaphua motor with a Drill motor with sprockets and chains and had it geared for a final speed of 11 fps. Like half the teams in the competition thought that it was the latest greatest thing (having a fast/powerful 4 motor drive) and they all had so many questions, even though it was so simple.

Now, many of us take it way above and beyond that, yet people just don't really seem interested.

Why is this?


PS. I hope next year's game really brings a lot more variety and inovation in drive systems and has the opportunity/requirement for more than one mechanism