Re: Programming goofs!
 

One of my favorites is a combination of programming and just plain old stupidity. And this one you can blame on the mentors!!!

In 2006 Aim High 294 was at the LA regional. We had programmed a second version of our autonomous to drive out make a turn aim and fire the balls into the goal. This was different than the one we did in AZ where we just angled it to the goal and fired.

We tuned it up to be working great on the practice field. We were nailing 5 out of 6 and we were ready to go...

We get onto the field and the students realize that the practice field was set up as a mirror image of the real field!!! unable to turn off the selected auto mode(switch wasn't ready) they angled the robot away in a funny angle so we wouldn't hit our teammates. What resulted was us firing 6 balls in rapid succession into the judges laps(err.. faces) who were oh so kindly sitting next to the field!!! Needless to say it took them by surprise but we ended up winning an innovation in controls award there! (not for the autonomous but for our HUD)

Re: Programming goofs!
 

In 2008, I was the only programmer for team 41 RoboWarriors. Throughout the build season I was tinkering with the gyro so the robot could line up to knock the trackballs off better. Of course the best time to test these things are in practice matches on Archimedes.

The first time it didn't fail, but instead hindered the robot's ability to turn. After that match we removed the gyro, and I "thought" I recompiled and redownloaded the robot code. I didn't. The robot tried to read a sensor that was not there, and no matter what inputs I applied to it, it would not respond. The robot went full speed into our opponents drive station, knocking off 2 controllers, and damaging one joystick. At least this code was only operational during hybrid mode.

After that match I walked over to the opposing team and offered a joystick, and some velcro. I can't remember their team number, but if this was anyone's team let me know. I still feel bad about it, I took away one of their practice matches for my mistake.