[shuhao]

I've been pushing for this the entire season.. However our team has no electrical, so I had to take over that part.. Also we don't have the funds to go all out on sensors.. and our mechanical team do not have time to mount an advance sensor system..

It's not entirely impossible. It just takes 1 really good programmer (SLAM, planning, control), a really good machinist (sensor turrents etc.), and a really good electrical guy (sensors, control systems etc.) to work on exclusively the autonomous mode while everyone else works on everything else about the robot and a lot of money to do it.. 6 weeks should be enough. Though it will be pretty difficult to accomplish in the scale of FIRST, as the robots are big and the field are not always the most friendly in terms of localization. The worst part is probably tracking other robots.. Not impossible, but pretty hard as everyone has different dimensions (though bumpers are the same.. hmm)

Me and our main builder (who is probably one of the best machinist I've ever encountered), and an outside friend who's excellent at electrical are starting to do a smaller robot that could do SLAM and auto navigation. We're making the entire robot open source once completed. The current design is approximately 18in x 11in big.