Retire the Basic Stamp
A better controller robot controller. It's time for the BS2P to be upgraded dramatically better. I'm seeing all sorts of competitors with faster and better alternatives to the BS2P, including more memory and i/o capability.
PBASIC is not the best programming language to learn. I'd like to see people writing code in Java or C/C++ as those are the languages that are being used in industry.
Linux and/or Macintosh tools. Not everybody loves Windows and a lot of schools are Macintosh equipped. More and more Linux is happening because schools don't have the funds to pay the steep M$ licenses. Linux also plays much nicer on older hardware as well.
I'd also like to see a requirement for an electronics enclosure. I've seen many times during construction and competitions that the exposed electronics get damaged and that hurts the team.
I like the bud box approach. Make it bigger and raise the budget limit for it. Combine it with the above enclosure and simply set a budgetary limit for the whole electronics package. Allow people to drum up their own controllers.
Make the dashboard capabilities more accessible. Currently, you cannot see all of the input variables right there on the operator interface. Allow people to design their own packets to feed robot controller data back to the operator interface.
Switch to 802.11b or bluetooth wireless networking for RF communications between
robot and controller. This maybe a bit of a stretch for now, but it opens the door to a lot of possibilities. The gear is much cheaper off the shelf than the current RF system.
Btw, animation needs more time, like starting in the fall and ending just before the National finals.
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