Robots Controlled by Analog Circuitry  competed on a very serpentine race track. Robots missing a tight turn suffered a severe penalty. So the tight turns limited the maximum robot speed. Wobbling coming out of turns and on the straight portions lowered the speed further. The goal was to finish the complete course with the fastest time. Infrared devices signalled the start and timed the finish. See video clip (in either QuickTime .mov format or RealMedia .rm format).

Robots Controlled by a Microcontroller Chip  competed on a maze. All robots started at the same position (the lower triangle in the video clip) and had to find the target (in upper right corner, defined by an infrared sensor). However, the initial robot direction was unknown, i.e. the robot could face any of the three sides of the starting triangle. The unknown initial robot direction required an algorithm by which the microcontroller "figured out" the initial robot direction. Thus this competition required algorithms which were both quick and robust in their execution. The goal was to finish the race with the fastest time for each of the (three possible) unknown initial robot directions. See the video clip, which shows only two of the starting positions for brevity (in either QuickTime .mov format or RealMedia .rm format).