Programming dumbed down even more.
 

2012: we had a difficult autonomous. The robot had to not only aim at the fairly small target, but also judge distance to properly score. operators would also often need vision processing to aim, considering the small targets, and the not so great perspective that they get.

2013: things get a little simpler. The goal was wider, and frisbees flew straight, so there wasn't too much difficulty aiming. Many robots could do it with simple dead reckoning. Robots also had to pick up frisbees from the ground. Teleop vision processing also most likely slowed you down if it wasn't extremely optimized.

2014: shoot in the massive goal when it's lit up and drive forward.
The rest of the game is entirely up to the drivers.

Anybody see the trend? programming is getting easier and easier.

I don't work on robot programming anymore at meetings. There is no reason to. There is no program to work on since the robot doesn't actually need to be coded anymore. The joysticks have to go to the drive train and the buttons have to go to the other actuators. Maybe the main mechanism can be controlled by a state machine to make my life as operator a bit easier. Other than that there is very little to program. What's with this trend?

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

Really?

Find the hot goal
Shoot the ball
Find another ball touching your partners bot
Pick up other ball
Find the hot goal
Aim and shoot the second ball
Move to a good spot to receive a pass or pick up remaining ball.
All in 10 seconds

Get to work!

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

I don't think you are being innovative enough when it comes to making the robot's computer to do stuff. You can use coding more than just for targeting you just need some creativity. So the trend is you losing creativity when it comes to code.

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

Our programming team has found this also. So, in return, we have upped the challenge for this year for ourselves. As the drive code will take about a week we have set the following tasks for ourselves.

• Add photogates to detect the ball in our arms, even when the drives view is blocked.
• Use an angled piece of glass and a broken down SMART board to make a HUD for our drivers. With all these rules having indicators that they can see live will be needed
• Attempt Kinetic intergration for firing. Track the gamepad being pushed forward for fire, and pulled at the body for the flywheels to power down
• Add toggle switches on the robot to allow us to control what we do during auto, as it will change as the other teams do.
• Attempt tracking of other robots, with color tracking to determine team. Project to HUD

I doubt they will all get done, or will be feasible. But they are fun challenges for us, and others, to try.

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

False!

Wait for hot goal
shoot
move forward

or if your alliance members can't make auto shots:

shoot
pick up ball
shoot again
move forward


There isn't any point in trying to get both balls in the hot goal since it only shows up on the side you start on for 5 seconds at a time and moving to shoot for the other one is time consuming.

And a system that tries to find the other teams ball is pointless because a smart alliance would position the robots such that the ball ends up in a known location.

No work to get to!

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

Rule <G5>. Did you mean near your partner's bot?

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

Touching your partner's bot.

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

It seems like they're trying to make it easier for rookie teams to get some autonomous points this year (which, in previous years, was honestly pretty hard.) If we have time this season (ha) I will probably try to work on a two-ball autonomous that can score a partner's ball as well. I'm sure it would set us apart at regionals, beyond that I'm not so sure.

I think that teams that do attempt a more complex auton will probably face some unique challenges right away - like trying to keep track of both goals at the same time to see which is hot. I'm not sure I trust our vision system enough to act on the absence of a target.

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

Don't try to make him seem wrong, he even quoted the proper rule. That is as long as one robot is in the goalie position or absent from the field altogether. Then you can place the ball anywhere you wish in the white zone on your side of the truss.

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

Creativity does not come into play here. We make the most efficient solutions for the game. This game, the most efficient solution is the most basic one, thus it is the solution that will be implemented. I put creativity into projects when they aren't constrained by winning and such boring things.

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

It's easy to go the "dumb" route and rely on precise placement of balls at the start of the match.

However, this isn't very robust. What if the ball rolls a little? What if for whatever reason your alliance can't place the ball where you need it in order for another robot to make its autonomous shot?

A more robust and intelligent system would seek out a ball to pick up.

You complained that there was nothing to do in autonomous, and IndySam suggested ways that you can add more depth to your autonomous mode. If you don't like that idea, maybe focus on adding depth to other parts of your code.

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

These what ifs are what kill many good intentioned projects. There's plenty of stuff that can go wrong, but making a more "robust" system *snicker* you simply add more things that can go wrong.

It's when hard but simple things are NECESSARY that programming becomes interesting.

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

I also think that you just are losing your enlightenment and creativity.
Also, it isn't necessarily getting easier. The ball is much harder to handle this year and an aiming system will be harder to implement because of the greater effect of gravity!

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

I'd be careful with the wording on that rule you quoted.

G5:

Notice that the word their refers to TEAM and not ALLIANCE. Therefore, if a team has placed their robot in the white zone, and if they choose to preload a ball, that ball can only touch that team's robot. No other robot.

The penalty for violating this rule is a technical foul (-50 points).

Re: Programming dumbed down even more.
 

This guy in the attachment is one of my side projects. The cameras are streamed into an oculus rift, and the sensors are being sent to the udoo on board, allowing the driver to essentially be where the robot is. No I am not losing creativity and "enlightenment". There just isn't anything to do in this game.