FRC Robots Aren't Real Robots?

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by SoftwareBug2.0

Forgive me if you've heard me say this before, but I think FIRST needs to make a game where there's a huge penalty for not moving at all during autonomous. The number of teams that do nothing in autonomous every year is ridiculous.

As an example rule, let's say that driver control doesn't begin until you leave the starting zone of the field. You can either make your robot drive a few feet or hope that your teammates come to push you out of the zone.

There's no team where turning on motors for a few seconds is out of reach. If they can't it's because they've prioritized something else.

I think the GDC tried to implement something like this in 2015, and the result was that even fewer teams bothered with autonomous at all.

This year struck a good balance in my opinion. 2 points just for running motors a few seconds, and 3 more bonus points if you could just make it over a defense. I wouldn't mind seeing some form of disincentive for smashing into the opposing alliance wall at full speed though.