FRC...autonomous or driver-controlled competition?

[probizzle]

Originally Posted by Josh Fritsch

I don't see a big change in the near future coming.

The point is not whether a big change is coming or not, but whether one SHOULD come.

In any case,
I see a lot of posts here seeming to imply that students are not capable of designing (with mentor help), and programming a functional autonomous bot. I flatly disagree. Our robot doesn't do much during autonomous this year.. but that isn't because we couldn't get it to work. It was because we couldn't get it to work in the time we had: autonomous wasn't given enough of an emphasis.
If FIRST designs a competition that does rely on autonomy a lot more, teams will HAVE to get autonomous working, and will work on it. Autonomous is a bigger challenge.. not only for programming but for electrical and mechanical teams as well (All those extra sensors, well-built mechanisms needed for the robot to be able to function without humans watching over).

In general, going to a more autonomous-controlled competition will allow the students to learn more. It should not degrade to mentors doing the work and students watching, it should improve to students learning to get a tougher job done in the guidance of mentors.
And in the interest of not ranting forever, I congratulate FIRST on introducing the camera to autonomous this year. I think it is a step in the right direction. All they need to do is emphasize it more. Make it worth all the time that needs to be spent working on it.