Re: An Idea for new Mindstorms - event potential?

While I think mindstorms needs to be computer-programmable out of the box (ie no
corner cutting by making the PC interface a seperate acessory), I'm intrigued by
the concept of fixed programs as a robotics challenge - for many kinds of robot,
far more is acomplished by the physics of the body than the structure of the
code. Many insects are a good example of this in nature. (A walking insect's
foot that misses a branch still gains purchase on it because of barbs along the
shin - it's too complex to compute where exactly to put the foot down, so the
body is shaped such that it doesn't matter. A fly can land on the ceiling not
because it is smart (it isn't), but because it's body is built such that the
laws of physics themselves automate a process that would be prohibitively
complex to compute, etc etc). 

I think that would make a great competition event: Here is a very simple
pre-designed program. Here is a very simple obstacle course. Everyone must build
a robot to attempt the obstacle course using the fixed program. May the best
designer win.
(competitors should get five (or whatever) run attempts, with the scores
averaged to a total, to eliminate luck as a factor)

In other words, the only thing differentiating the competitors is who can come
up with a _body_ that solves the problems the best. I would like an event like
that. It would probably work best if the program was published weeks ahead of
time, and the obsacle course was easy to replicate at home.

It would be pretty cool to have to focus entirely on good mechanics, and very
instructive to see how other people approached the same problem. Ideally, the
program would be so crude and generic that it does not lend itself to any
particular solution, thus competitors could take vastly different approaches.