[Uberbots]

They blame the programmers because, sadly, most of the time is is the software. Furthermore, when a problem arises that could be fixed in either software or hardware, typically it is simpler (depending on the programmer) to just rewrite a couple lines of code.

Also, the programmer should be by no means the last one to test their product. Throughout the design process of the robot the programmers should have access to a simple prototyping system to at least verify if the code runs, and hopefully use some of the outputs of the test system to determine at least valid output. By the time the mechanical team (finally) finishes their part, all the software team should have to do is tune a few parameters or change a couple lines.

In my opinion if you don't have running code by the time the robot is ready for it, or you have a broken interface (e.g. programmers say left motor is pwm01, but electrical says its pwm03) then your design process is broke.

obviously how far along the code is when the robot is ready varies from team to team, but there is no excuse for having untested or incompatible code at that point.