[BBray_T1296]

Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink

I know that FTC isn't FRC, but the following Q&A was posted tonight. It directly contradicts a similar FRC Q&A from Aerial Assist:

Q: Hello, We had a question concerning the strategy. Would it be legal to have a sensor on our robot that in autonomous we would show it a card and it would run a certain autonomous program depending on which card we show it. Would this be considered legal since it is still being operated be pre-programmed instructions.


A: No. By signaling to the robot a desired action with a colored card, you are controlling the robot and it is no longer autonomous. It is not making its own decisions, you are deciding for it and communicating the decision with a colored card.

Perhaps this will be the ruling moving forward. While controlling via webcam (FRC) is a cool demonstration of coding prowess, it is by definition teleoperated.

Originally Posted by Rolf Pfeifer

"autonomy means independence of control. This characterization implies that autonomy is a property of the relation between two agents, in the case of robotics, of the relations between the designer and the autonomous robot. Self-sufficiency, situatedness, learning or development, and evolution increase an agent’s degree of autonomy."