We had a productive weekend and now have a competition-ready, if not competition-perfect, practice robot. Software tuning and sensor testing has now begun in earnest and we're really happy with the way things are shaping up. The mechanical systems are getting a good work out and we're ready to make improvements as we finish up the competition robot this week.
We'll have more pictures and videos soon -- the robot is a bit of a mess yet -- but we wanted to share some cool video of our camera-assisted scoring tests.
The first video is brief and shows one of the first tests of the system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YaR1kKhUWw
The second shows a bit more of the robot in action as potential drivers experiment with the robot, help tune the arm PID system and score some tubes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn2apqadb7M
The camera-assisted scoring works in steps, using on board sensors to position the robot in front of a column of scoring pegs.
First, using the gyro, it rotates the robot so that it is in its starting orientation relative to the field -- facing the pegs. After rotating to that orientation, it locks out the ability to rotate the robot further while scoring-assist is enabled.
Next, it uses the camera to locate a column of scoring pegs. In this demonstration, the yellow part bin is standing in for the retroreflective tape. The robot strafes until the target is centered in its field of vision. Once the target is centered, strafe is disabled.
The only degree of control that remains at this point is forward/backward motion. The driver and operator can now easily select the height of the scoring peg they're aiming for an approach to score a tube. Though rotation and strafing are now locked, the robot will always try to maintain its orientation and heading, so it will resist and correct for being knocked off course by other robots.
Chiefdelphi is a great resource for all of FIRST to use over the years and has grown into a community that has taken a life of it's own. - Koko Ed [more] 
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