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

I wanted a strong robot and also smart enough to see the opponent. I also wanted a to try a different approach than last time when I used basically just the parts found in the RIS kid plus 2 motors and a poor IRPD sensor.

Question 2: What technologies/mechanisms did you use?

I used a 4wd with tank stile differential steering. The 4 Mag wheels were great and I used a regular light sensor to detect the opponent's IR beacon. And a wedge of course.

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

I would say get it fit the size limit that was an 8 inch circle by 6 inch tall. I had to make the wedge mobile so at the start it will be vertically and make a move to drop it.

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

For the first time I thought about combining seeing and go blind strategies. From now on I will always do that plus other things that will be necessary :-)

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

My robot was the only one that used the seeing the beacon feature. It worked well in a few cases and poor in others. But I was especially happy to see that I could have beaten Steve with a less powerful robot...