[EricH]

I'll try to be more specific than above... but bear in mind, I'm a mechanical. Therefore, it's always a programming problem or an electrical problem unless one or both of the above can prove that it is in fact a mechanical problem.

Programmers program the robot. This means that they sit at computers typing and clicking to make the code that drives the robot. They then compile the code, download it, test it, and fix any problems they find. The cycle then repeats.

What often happens is that they get to do the download, test, fix part only in the last few days before build day. This means that the more coding they do before they get the robot, the better. Understandably, they may ask for testbeds to do so. (They may not always get them, however.)

That, in a nutshell, is the sole, complete, and entire job of the programming team. They may subdivide it into autonomous and teleoperated, or into who programs what function of the robot, but as a programming team, their job is to write code so the robot doesn't just sit there.