[Jon Stratis]

Based on past experience... you'll see a difference in what your robot can do at the beginning of a match versus the end of a match (as the battery drains), and an even bigger difference if you don't use a fully charged battery. The speed controllers don't provide 12V to the motor - they provide battery voltage to the motor, which may not be 12V (and, in fact, it fluctuates quite a bit when you're driving around doing things).

I'm a big fan of using a feedback loop for this situation (and, in fact, we'll be putting an encoder on our shooter to allow good speed control). Does it need to be full-blown PID, or can you get by with something simpler?