Rumor Panic

[ShotgunNinja]

Hah, rumors? NO ONE spreads rumors HERE, this is FIRST! A rumor here would be like, oh, I don't know, an old person in Florida! How often does THAT happen?

[Racer26]

I don't know... right now the biggest thing scaring me is the new control system for 2009... I'm afraid it might use LabView. I have absolutely ZERO interest in trying to use LabView to code our robots, I had enough trouble trying to get the blasted camera to work using it. I say good riddance to that camera, and may it never return to FIRST competition, EVER.

[petek]

Microsoft and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) announced today that Microsoft will be the sole supplier of robotic control systems and software starting in the 2009 competition season. In addition to providing hardware and software solutions for the teams' robots, Microsoft will develop competition field control systems for all FIRST events. Teams and event staffs will have access to Microsoft's web-based and toll-free telephone customer support to address any questions or problems they may have throughout the competition season.

Help! Somebody wake me up from my nightmare!

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by petek

...and toll-free ....

This one statement is why I know this is not a rumor. This is a flat out LIE!!

[Engineer]

Originally Posted by petek

Microsoft and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) announced today that Microsoft will be the sole supplier of robotic control systems and software starting in the 2009 competition season. In addition to providing hardware and software solutions for the teams' robots, Microsoft will develop competition field control systems for all FIRST events. Teams and event staffs will have access to Microsoft's web-based and toll-free telephone customer support to address any questions or problems they may have throughout the competition season.

Help! Somebody wake me up from my nightmare!

Reboot! Reboot! Reboot! LOL

I wonder if they'll make us lease the software.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by petek

Microsoft and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) announced today that Microsoft will be the sole supplier of robotic control systems and software starting in the 2009 competition season. In addition to providing hardware and software solutions for the teams' robots, Microsoft will develop competition field control systems for all FIRST events. Teams and event staffs will have access to Microsoft's web-based and toll-free telephone customer support to address any questions or problems they may have throughout the competition season.

Help! Somebody wake me up from my nightmare!

Will they make us use Vista or can we "upgrade" to XP?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by ShotgunNinja

Hah, rumors? NO ONE spreads rumors HERE, this is FIRST! A rumor here would be like, oh, I don't know, an old person in Florida! How often does THAT happen?

Hmmm...I don't know if Gary Dillard quite counts as old... but he does occasionally spread rumors...

That thunder you hear is me getting out of range quickly...

[Jeff Waegelin]

A great one I saw once said that teams would not be allowed to use wheels. Needless to say, that would throw everybody off just a little bit...

[Gboehm]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

This one was an all time classic.

Whats funny about this one is it mentions Tony George... They should be smart enough to know anything Tony George touches fails...

[Jack Murphy]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Will they make us use Vista or can we "upgrade" to XP?

Ohhhh! Ed, That's dangerously close to technical after all these years.

Have fun this weekend.

[RyanN]

Originally Posted by petek

Microsoft and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) announced today that Microsoft will be the sole supplier of robotic control systems and software starting in the 2009 competition season. In addition to providing hardware and software solutions for the teams' robots, Microsoft will develop competition field control systems for all FIRST events. Teams and event staffs will have access to Microsoft's web-based and toll-free telephone customer support to address any questions or problems they may have throughout the competition season.

Help! Somebody wake me up from my nightmare!

I think you may be onto something... I know for a fact that they are changing the control system next year, I would would venture to say that Microsoft may be a good bet. I've read that the new Windows 7 kernel is a lot leaner than the Windows 6 kernel (the one Vista is built on top of). Microsoft did just come out with its Robot Studio software. I don't believe IFI will be supplying the controllers next year (I believe this because they have not come up with anything new for 2 years now).

By the way, I'm just kidding...

[X-Istence]

Originally Posted by Damien1247

Having to code the entire robot in assembly. That would scare me.

I am currently in college and I have to say that programming in assembly is far easier than it is in C or BASIC. Mostly because in assembly you write in small units and it is easier to test where something went wrong. Interrupts and other such things become much easier.

Last semester I worked on a robot that was able to navigate itself around obstacles and stay away from tables and other such items.

The entire thing was done in assembly, written on top of a Parallax SX chip. The only sensors were bumper sensors (simple whiskers) and infra-red. It took just about 160 lines of assembly to get it all working extremely well. When we (me and my team mate) re-wrote the code in SX/B (BASIC variant for the SX) it took us many more lines as we had to program around the flaws that existed in SX/B, and the fact that it would otherwise not be fast enough at the 1 Mhz the chip ran at.

As for more intensive robots would I chose assembly? Probably not, thinking back to my FIRST experience I would have certainly done more inline assembly for our robot only because it would have sped certain parts up which were really doing too much processing.

I used to hate assembly, until I started programming in assembly, and that is when I really started to love the fact that you have so much more control over the hardware, you can optimise so much more than any compiler could possibly ever do. Assembly also changes the way you approach a problem and the way you think.

[X-Istence]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

A great one I saw once said that teams would not be allowed to use wheels. Needless to say, that would throw everybody off just a little bit...

Pfft, what would throw more people off is that it has to be self-balancing. Two wheeled robots only!

PID loops here we come!

Originally Posted by RyanN

I think you may be onto something... I know for a fact that they are changing the control system next year, I would would venture to say that Microsoft may be a good bet. I've read that the new Windows 7 kernel is a lot leaner than the Windows 6 kernel (the one Vista is built on top of). Microsoft did just come out with its Robot Studio software. I don't believe IFI will be supplying the controllers next year (I believe this because they have not come up with anything new for 2 years now).

By the way, I'm just kidding...

While I know you are kidding, the fact is that it might not be that far from the truth. It is in FIRST's best interest to keep innovating, and they can do this through changing to a different hardware based kit for control.

While I believe FIRST has done a great job with regards to the control system it uses now, the ease of programming (especially with EasyC), and other such items. I do think it would provide an entirely new competition if they changed the systems to one that all teams are not familiar with. That way it is harder to take old code and use it on the new bot, at least without significant modifications.