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Re: System Design Requirements
1) Minimize cockpit workload.
Time spent fumbling with controls is time not used to pay attention to what's happening on the field. And if there are fewer steps to be done there are fewer steps to do wrong. On our robot this year it was possible to do a scoring cycle with the gunner only pressing a control twice: once to enable the intake and once to fire.
2) Tolerate failure.
Whether it's wear, a design flaw, or an opposing robot reaching in and riping out wires, failures will happen. We broke several chains in our drive train this year but due to the design none of the breaks did more than unpower one of our eight wheels. Similarly, all the automated functions on our robot could be overridden by the operator, allowing them to adapt to unforeseen circumstances.
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