Well, I'd really like to have a DWIM programming interface (Do What I Mean) as opposed to our current "Do What I Say" system. That would really make life easier, and allow our programming team to make full use of that half-hour period they get to work on the "finished" robot before it goes in the crate!
As far as sensors... the Banebots Encoders are nice... so I echo the requst for multiple quadrature encoder support in hardware. We've run up to four encoders at a time... although we used Banebots decoder board to simplify the inputs, it would still be nice to just have a plug'n'play hookup for multiple encoders. The
maxbotix sonars are great, and while they work great with their easy-to-use analog interface they have a couple other modes as well that could be supported.
But my biggest request is that the whole system be tested on a very large scale (perhaps an off-season event) in the early autumn so that there is time to work out any bugs that show up when multiple systems run conncurrently in a public environment. We typically compete in Portland (a first weekend regional) and really hope we aren't serving as one of the first large-scale public testbeds for the new system.
Jason