Wow, reading these posts really makes me feel conservative. If an autonomous mode has not been tested (in some form), we won't run it.
Our list of programming goofs over the past few years is long and depressing
This year seems to be the year of the fat finger.
Tuning autonomous on the practice field in Milwaukee, the robot was suppose to drive x inches, lift the elevator, drive last y inches, score, backup, drop elevator, sit idle. Our coach was standing near the rack chatting with another team member while we were tuning. Lets assume x = 120 inches and (should have been ) y = 36 inches. Let's get those slender fingers out and change y = ~3776 inches.
Things are looking good, robot stops just short of the rack, lifter goes up properly, SLAM full steam ahead into our coach with the elevator ~15 feet in the air. Luckily our coach has the reflexes of a cat and somehow catches the robot and saves the day. Coach: +1 Controls team: 0
Actually now that I think of it ....
During one of the qualification matches in Milwaukee, (after several previous successful autonomous attempts) the robot decided to spin ~270 degrees with the lifter at full height and careen toward the announcer. Robot hits the wall, nearly going over. I watch from the stands as the controls team members slouch further down into their seats. I was sure that the drive team/coach was going to hit the E-Stop. We end up running great in Teleop and won the match. Coach: +2 Controls team: still 0
End up getting picked and didn't have time to debug the above problem. Never ran autonomous in elimination rounds which was a big downer. Since then we found out that the breakout card on the analog module had went bad causing the gyro to very quickly count up instead of showing a constant angle.
I'll stop there ... enjoy!