Hibner: Flexible, Scripted Autonomous Control

[Chris Hibner]

At the FIRST Robotics Conference I will be presenting a strategy for autonomous software design. The presentation will be Wednesday 6:00 p.m.

Here's the abstract:

Creating a new autonomous routine can take less than one minute. This presentation describes a strategy for autonomous programming which allows ultimate flexibility. Robot control is broken down into simple pieces that can be strung together with simple scripts that can be stored on the cRIO. Making an entirely new autonomous routine is as simple as creating a new script, saving it on the cRIO, then selecting it before the start of the match. Variations of this method have been used successfully since 2003.

The presentation is not about what to do during the autonomous period. It's about how to architect your software to make it do what YOU want it to do with extreme flexibility. Tired of re-building and delpoying software between matches to change your autonomous? With this strategy, there is no need to re-build software.

The presentation will be highly interactive and audience participation will be highly encouraged (Pavlov would be proud). Throughout the presentation, working autonomous software will be developed with audience input. This means there will be a live example, which is a little scary for me, but it should be fun. If nothing else, you can come and witness the potential train wreck.

If there is anything you would like to see addressed, feel free to post it in this thread.