[EmileH]

Here's what I've always tried to do with my team to save programming time while not restricting the mechanical team.

Say it's 2016 and we have two manipulators that require complex programming: an intake with a motor with PID to angle the intake and a catapult shooter powered by surgical tubing, winched down by another motor using PID.

This method does require a few extra mechanical kids in your shop to build these subsystems.

(this would be around week 2-3, once the design of the robot is just about complete and machining has begun)

Prototype both of those subsystems fairly accurately with wood (doesn't have to be exactly like your robot but similar enough that you can test as you would on the real robot), and while your mechanical team is assembling the real robot, use a spare RoboRIO or another set of electronics to get the feel of how those complex subsystems behave and then start writing some software. Doing this will make programming the real thing much easier as you technically can just copy and paste the software and make minor tweaks.

The reason we never prototype drivebases is because they're always the same...tank drives are quite simple to program, and you can use the same code every time you need to use a tank drive. The only instance in which a drivebase would be prototyped would be if it's a holonomic or a complex system (swerve, kiwi, mecanum, etc.)