These sort of low level competitions aren't there to spur innovation - it's just to kindle some interest with kids or the general public. Once you realise that,

These sort of low level competitions aren't there to spur innovation - it's just to kindle some interest with kids or the general public. Once you realise that, just smile and move on and let them play fast and loose with words. If you really want to do innovation, there's DARPA - they've lots of problems that they need solving they can't do with today's robots. Or if you have something against the military, there's always something similar to the Amazon Picking Challenge.