If autonomous is moved to the end of a match (or any time where the robot's start position is unknown) I hope we get some sort of fixed objects to locate a position off of.
I think it would be interesting to have the first 5 or 10 seconds and the last 20 or 30 second be autonomous. The start of the game would be similar to this year. The robot knows where it is and how to get to some predetermined places on the field. Things can complicate this, but its generally not too difficult to dead reckon your way around (yes, even with bins stacked in your way
). The end of the game would be more interesting. Some teams would attempt to move their robot into a known location (corner of the field maybe) so they could dead reckon the end-game- others would try and find their location and/or navigate the field. Maybe it would be possible to carry variables over into this end of game autonomous mode. A selector switch set mid-game could determine the robot's behavior in the last few seconds.
I liked autonomous mode last year, looks even more fun this year with the new controller. I just hope FIRST presents a wider range of options in autonomous.
Last year: "go forward, turn (left or right), go forward, crash into things".
This year: "<do stuff>, crash into things".
Greg