[Dave Scheck]

I think that the problem with autonomous this year is that there are too many variables involved and not enough development time to deal with them. Yes, there are teams that can and will be able to accomplish the challenge, but the majority of teams just don't have the time nor resources to do so.

The variables that I'm referring to are 1) A target that can be rotated 2) A target that can be translated in any direction 3) The chance that multiple green lights may be seen at the same time 4) A relatively small target to hit (especially if more than one robot make an attempt at scoring).

In comparison, in past games, only the defense played on a team or other robots on the alliance were considered variables.
2003 - Wall of boxes was fixed
2004 - Ball tee was fixed. The moving goals were always close, and if you were 190, the bar was always in the same place.
2005 - The starting tetras and goal locations were known. However, the vision tetras started in one of a few random places.
2006 - The goal was fixed and even gave you something to aim at with the green light.

Notice that all of the years where we saw good autonomous action had tasks that were relatively easy. Once multiple variables get put in place, less experienced teams (in terms of programming) start to struggle.

The other thing to notice is that when the task allows for true dead reckoning, more things happen. That just isn't true in 2007 or 2005 (vision tetras).

Another other key that has been mentioned above, is the reward for having a successful autonomous. If the reward's not there, there really isn't much of an incentive other than the "cool factor"

This year would have been much more exciting in autonomous if a) The reward was greater or b) Variables were taken out of the equation - maybe something along the lines of fixing the location of the goal (i.e. no rotation/transliation).

So my advice to FIRST would be this. Keep it simple enough for less experienced teams to do something worthwhile yet keep the door open for more experienced teams to do awe inspiring things.