[Jared Russell]

I agree that autonomy is what you make of it; every one of our machines since 2003 has had SOME degree of autonomy during teleop. Whether that means having pre-programmed setpoints on an arm, automatic kicker re-cocking, unjamming routines, traction control, etc., depends on the game.

Still, I hear you that the autonomous portion of the game could stand to get a little more attention. Veteran teams have gotten dead reckoning with a gyro and encoders down to a science - give us something new. It would be nice to have a basic challenge with a little reward during autonomous mode, but also a tougher challenge give veterans the incentive to actually use some vision/active sensors that we keep getting in the kit.

For the last 4 years (Lunacy is sort of a special case), the best autonomous modes have been decided more by the quality of the machine (driving straight, controllable turns, reliable game piece acquisition, smooth and consistent scoring motions) and basic state machines than by anything else. Nothing is inherently wrong with this, but I'd like to bring programming more to the forefront in FRC.