I ref'd my last robotics contest for the 2013-14 season. There are still a few more scheduled, but I'm usually not in town for the World Championships in the spring. I think 8 matches were enough for one season though. I have a big enough reputation as a nerd as it is.
In this particular game there are 4 robots on the field at one time - 2 make up the blue alliance and 2 make up the red alliance. Their primary objective is to get those little yellow cubes into the white baskets. My job as the ref is to count up the little yellow cubes at the end and see if the baskets are balanced (oh boy).
At the end of the match, teams get a bonus if they can get their robots to hang from the center bar. This team was not happy with me, because I had to give them a penalty for crossing over the blue/red center line (most of these teams are made up of teenage boys and they can be pretty aggressive). They ended up coming in 1st place anyway.
