I'm back

Good Afternoon Teams,

Some of you may have noticed a button I wore proudly at Championship. No Robot Left Behind. As you are all well aware FRC introduced a new control system in 2009. With 1680 teams starting from scratch it made for a challenging build season. The onsite Robot Inspectors tell me every team attending an FRC event, no matter the state of their robot when they arrived, was able to get out on the field and compete during that event. I want to thank National Instruments for their onsite help during the season and I want to thank all of you for sharing what you learned and offering assistance to other teams. With all that support, no robot was left behind.

What you may not have noticed at Championship is an absence I am also delighted to share. We heard you loud and clear when teams responded to last year’s team survey. You told us there were too many opportunities for penalties in Overdrive. The Game Design Committee and the Referees took your comments to heart and designed Lunacy accordingly. There were fewer actions and conditions that could be penalized in Lunacy and no penalties were awarded on Einstein this year. When the team survey is ready this year I hope you’ll take the time to let us know what you think. I’ll send an email blast to teams the minute it’s ready.

Speaking of the Game Design Committee, we met on Monday and there is nothing I can report (lots that I know, but nothing I can share – yet).

And if you have time over the summer, you can start thinking about next year. We announced at Championship that teams may program their robot using Java in 2010 if they choose. If you’re ready, you can learn more here. We’ll keep updating the site as we finalize the rules.

248 days until the 2010 Kickoff
See you there!