Slowing down the action of a cylinder with flow control, mechanical or via software

[Mr V]

Flow control valve between the solenoid and cylinder are legal. I know that a team who's lead mentor is also an inspector and has been before being associated with that team used them and I guarantee that he would not allow parts that aren't legal on his teams robot.

There are flow control valves that regulate the flow in only 1 direction. So put one that regulates the flow into the side that gets pressurized and/or one that regulates the flow out of the side that exhausts. You should be able to do what you want with one if that doesn't work add the other.