We have the luxury of more than a decade of old robots and parts to use for prototyping software. Our basic code framework was written and tested on last year's robot
weeks before this year's drive base was in any condition to be powered up. As soon as the wires were in place, we turned it on and drove it around. We built the necessary feedback (pots, encoders, etc.) in to the design from the beginning, so we didn't have to try to kludge anything in after the fact. The code for fancy features was also written and ready before the hardware to use it was assembled.
We also built specific times into our schedule this year for software debug on the "robot in progress". Mechanical and electrical groups were supposed to leave the 'bot alone a couple of evenings a week so the software group could have unrestricted access. That worked out okay, mostly, and I am sure we'll try the same thing next year.
There are only two things left to do to the programming. First is to reconfigure the presets after I accidentally misaligned a feedback pot when we locked it in place. Second is...autonomous mode.
