I have something else to add to my prediction!!

I believe that the autonomous mode in this year's game will take place at the END of the match!!

Just another thing I picked up on in a certain e-mail blast from FIRST.

:cool:

Yeah, that's something I was thinking they might do too.
The game must be set up so that this would be useful though.

i think we discussed this last year as well, if autonomous is at the END, it will be really hard to orient your bot to be successful with your code, and what would be the purpose of just having 4 robots on the field going crazy because they weren't in the right zone to complete their autonomous?

That was my concern the first time I heard the idea, but then someone noted that you could position your robot wherever you wanted it to start right before auto clicks on. I still think this may have some major problems, but FIRST may just try it...

I think FIRST might actually like that idea. With no good, accurate way to align your bot correctly, there's less of a reliance on dead reckoning. It would really emphasize the use of sensors for autonomous.

:) Not if they slid it in carefully, and even if it did hit it, that part would have to be relocated. The robot has to fit in it at rest position after all.

As to having autonomous at the end, nah. Let's have autonomous randomly occurring throughout the match!

you were mentioning drums earlier on in this post....it would be pretty cool to have the robots be giant wheels.....i don't know what they are called...maybe uniwheel....not a unicycle. anyways that would be pretty darn cool if a robot ended up like that. oh, and what if you had to do something like bowling??? ne ways...sorry for messing with your heads.....

oh visit redvsblue.com
very very funny.

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

I don´t know about the game, but I BET there´s going to be a HUGE autonomous period, with difficult things to do.

All that because the C programming and it´s float points... ah.. I don´t know... calculating PI to measure distance between things, making exact calculations... there´s some point in that for sure...

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

but think about it... there are going to be a lot of rookie teams... who has never experienced FIRST... they may not even have a very good programming skill.... i think that the autonomous time period will be almost as same as last year...

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

You'd see a whole lot of teams with a dead reckoning code set to go straight forward for xx amount of seconds. Position yourself directly in front of your opponent...Need I say more? It's the easy, effective solution. It works. People will exploit that to no end, and perhaps justly so.

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

ok I've read the entire thread (trying to stay away from my English 101 paper), here's my guess:

If drums are used I think they'll be stationary they will be stationary. Why? if you navigate through stationary bins not only do they act as a visual limitation but they force teams to get really creative with their autonomous programming

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

What about if they're stationary they're stationary they're stationary?
Heh, j/k :p
I'd have to agree. I don't think FIRST is going to go up and over the edge with auto mode this year. So, they'll make the game so that auto mode is a little more challenging for experienced teams.

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

now you see what English does to a man

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

Sorry Guys but I have to go with the good old rookie theory there arn't that many vet teams that can program *cough* Well *cough* in C let alone in auto cause I mean look at all the idle teams last year. Our team is working on it but with out controls for the Edu bot (We're cheap :D ) its kind of difficult getting it right. And as far as the Drums go yeah I think thats it cause it is different ("to the beat of a different drum")!

Re: My hints and guess on the Game in 2004!
 

Now all we have to do is figure out how where the drums will be in relation to the stairs and then what we will be having to do in autonomous at the end of the match.