Placebo

The Placebo was a series of stand-in "placebo" robots that were used between 1995 and 1998. The Placebo played in some rounds of the double elimination tournament, particularly to fill in for a third robot in matches that only had two out of three spaces filled. Placebos were not used during the quarterfinal, semifinal, and final one-on-one best two out of three format rounds, only the earlier double-elimination tournament. The Placebo would occasionally fill in for an actual team.

The 1995 Placebo was a large black cylinder on wheels with large yellow PLACEBO lettering.

The 1996 Placebo was a hexagonal hovercraft vehicle with a boxy metal base with two angled fins on the top decorated with arrows and PLACEBO lettering. The air intakes on the angled front panels of the Placebo give it a somewhat mouselike appearance. The 1996 Placebo would float and often spin aimlessly around the playing field and the noise of the fans could be heard while it was running. This placebo was apparently named the "Placeb-o-matic" and was on display at FIRST Place at one time.

The 1997 Placebo was a black upright vacuum with the sucking portion removed to make room for a control system to make it drive around the field during matches.

The 1998 Placebo was simply a black box on casters that was intended to be pushed around for defensive purposes. In practice, they were essentially never used.

Traditionally, Placebo would receive zero points in a match, although allegedly in some cases they did recieve points.

Early on, it appears "placebo robot" was also used as a nickname for practice robots. Team 191's 1996 website shows one of their students driving a 1995 "placebo vehicle," a robot built by the team to practice playing the 1995 game against.

Gallery

• Additional photos on the FRC Archive
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  The 1996 Placebo spinning around at the 1996 New England Tournament [1]

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  The Placebo receiving zero points at the 1996 National Championship [2]

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  The 1997 Placebo at the 1997 Motorola Midwest Regional [3]