2009 Control System Possibility?

[Dave Scheck]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

It's not so much a hardware issue as it is a software issue. The tools and existing infrastructure around the product simply aren't conducive to the accomplishing the goals of the program. IMHO, FIRST control systems need to foster rapid development time, a shallow learning curve, and great results.

I would agree with this to a certain extent.

I definitely think that teams that have hybrid/autonomous robots that just sit there are doing so because of a lack of software understanding. However, I don't think this is the fault of the control system. I do think this is a problem with a lack of resources/tutorials that help rookie teams out. Yeah, I know there are some good ones floating around, but that isn't made public through FIRST. Most of the time the only way you come across those is here on CD, but how would a rookie team know to look here unless they were given the heads up? We based our software this year on Kevin's revamped default code. Was the default code download location even made public? I don't remember seeing an announcement anywhere.

While I still contend that graphical programming approaches still aren't for everyone, I do think that it allows inexperienced teams to have a pretty good foothold. My only hope is that they use that knowledge to jump into text based coding to get the experience.

If this problem is to be fixed, we don't need fancy new hardware or programming interfaces. The way to fix this is with education. If there was a curriculum that was provided to any team that requested it, I think that teams might find that there isn't a whole lot of magic in the programming itself...as with mechanical systems, it's all in the design.

Also, I've seen a lot more teams moving than in years past. I have a feeling that it's because there is an easy objective to accomplish (i.e. driving one or two lines) that teams aren't overwhelmed by (i.e hanging a tube on a randomly located post). I think that the way that the game is defined will dictate the excitement of the autonomous movement (2005 wasn't very interesting was it?).