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On one hand I do believe that the autonomous mode is a good thing for FIRST. This goes back to the "Is FIRST really Robotics?" debate, I think that this is definitely more robot-like than previous years (although many may dispute this claim). This is what people think of when they think robotics -- Large mechanical creatures moving on their own with out outside control of any kind, leaving all variables to the on-board sensors. FIRST isn't there yet, however it is a step in the right direction. Eventually, I predict this game will turn into a fully autonomous game, however this won't come soon.
Andy is right, this short period is confining for programmers who are given to little time and are assigned to fix every problem with the device. Honestly, we shouldn't have problems, as our programmer is decent and has finished all but a dead reckoning system on our unfinished bot. I still do think that autonomous is horrible. It doesn't give most programmers enough time, teams may not even have programmers, and on top of all that, veterans will be having trouble with a new programming language. (yes, i know it isn't really a completely new language, but it may require different styles of programming to make it efficient)
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