I think what solace is saying is, if you point your bot so it grazes the side barrier, then (depending on how your bot is powered, the type of drivetrain you have) the side rails will deflect it and it will skid along the railing, and be forced to go straight along the edge.
Im not sure how well that will work for all bots - if you have two wheel drive and castors or skids on the back, it might work
or your wheels might hit the side railing and stall, causing the bot to turn towards the railing, ending up square into it and going nowhere?
I dont know C programming well enough to translate what I wrote above into something that will compile, and even if I did, I would have to be there with you to test it on your bot and help you tweak it.
If you are going to have an auton mode, you are going to have to understand C a little bit - try looking over one or two control statement - like the IF statement - if you can get a good handle on how to use IF statements, you should be able to write the sequence algorythm somewhat like I explained it.
give it a shot - and something else - you cant always try your code with the wheels up off the ground, and see it its sorta doing what its suppose to, before you let the robot run by itself on the floor :c)
BTW - there are excellent resources on both the
www.usfirst.org website for a tutorial on C, and the default code users guide in the document section of
www.innovationfirst.com site.