Pillbox Fill: An Idea for the 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition
Sunken Wreck II (Tasmania) This last weekend, I had the good fortune to attend my very f irst robotics competition to watch my niece's team compete in the Rebound Rumble. They didn't do so well (sorry K!). But, I was struck by a couple of things -- although the teams are competing, there is more of a friendly rivalry here than, well, hmm, how to put this? A high school football league in any state (but then again, football is a sport where some pro teams pay a bonus for inflicting injury and so maybe that is not a a fair comparison). These teams actually help each other out in the pit (this is where robots go between competitions) and the game always has a cooperation element built into it where individual teams have to work together to achieve a common goal. The teams compete in alliances of three teams and within the game there is a game where opposing alliances can cooperate to earn more points. This is all pretty good if you ask me. E...