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Unread 28-03-2012, 13:18
Tom Bottiglieri Tom Bottiglieri is offline
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FRC #0254 (The Cheesy Poofs)
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Re: Team 254 Presents: Skyfire

I can give a bit more insight into how our software process works.

For the most part, we try to find mechanical solutions to everything. Once we get our robot to the point where extra mechanics and driver practice starts to result in diminishing returns, we start adding automation on top. We try not to do anything in software that the driver can't do on their own, in case of failures. It would be terrible for our camera to come unplugged during finals and be a sitting duck because of it. Sure, the software will make it faster, but that's just gravy once you have a properly trained operation crew.

We do have auto aim on our robot. We use it in autonomous and the driver has a button to activate it in teleop. To tell you the truth though, he hasn't really needed to use it. Between intuition, practice, and a live feed from the camera back to the DS, auto aim doesn't save enough time to justify the risk of practicing with it. We plan on improving this part of the code as time goes on and maybe our strategy will change, but for now it makes sense to give more practice cycles to the drivers than the programmers.