[Steve W]

Team 188 had a program that was to lock onto the 2 IR beacons and do look up tables. We could also have the robot follow us around on the field staying 3 feet away. However on the real fields we could not make it work. There was no opportunity at the regionals to debug on the field and the amount of reflections from the field was huge. We tried at 1 regional but after I checked the readings at 2 other regionals I was volunteering at we decided to scrap the sensors.

What will we see next year? I believe that they will attempt to make it harder not to use them. FIRST will however have to do a tougher testing to find out if what they ask is possible. I was told that there was testing done this year but I am not sure to what extent. If it were up to me, let's give it another try with a few modifications on the field. I believe that if there were only 5 becons instead of 7 and that there was a backing on the beacons that did not reflect things would work a lot better. Just my 2 cents and no I don't give change.

EDIT : What I think might be cool is a goal or item that could be placed anywhere on the field by the opposing alliance. This goal would have an IR beacon that you would need to find in auton mode. BIG bonus points for retreiving said goal.