Question 1: What was the general strategy or plan behind your bot design?

Solid reliability and simplicity. Originally designed to carry a beer or soda can in YAAARC Sumobot contest, this bot got beefed up to 2lbs for Sumo-bot 5. I didn't lose a single part in competition.

Question 2: What technologies/mechanisms did you use?

RIS only, with light sensor for edge detect and two touch sensors for bumpers in front. Programming done in NQC on Linux laptop.

Question 3: What was the most challenging aspect of construction?

Building the front bumper system. Trying to program in Mindstorms was a pain, so I switched to NQC. Then tricky parts was determining the timing for turning, pushing and backup.

Question 4: Are there any special features you care to talk about?

The algorithm was simple to search for somebody to push by driving to the edge and back to the middle, turning and repeating. If contact was made to one side, the program would turn toward that side until both bumpers made contact and push forward.

Question 5: What surprised you about how your bot behaved/performed during the event?

It did well if it found somebody to push out, but it was too easily pushed out from the side. In which case, I think I could've used more speed.