Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You

[efoote868]

Originally Posted by tsa256

I have no doubt it can be done; As the head programmer on my team I find myself automating everything I can with sensors. The two main limits keeping me from pursuing a robot with more autonomy or 100% autonomous robot is time, and resources.

In six weeks, with a budget of $5,000 of things that can go into the robot, using a normal skill set (high school programmers), it won't be done.



I used DARPA as an example early on in this thread - teams of professionals and graduate level students with near unlimited bankroll behind them, completing a task that is arguably easier/more straight forward.
It took them two years to complete the challenge.



Take this years game as an example, broken into its most simplistic macro steps.
(offense)
1. Find a ball
2. Drive to the ball
3. Kick or push the ball into the goal

That's very straight forward, until you toss in the fact that there are 5 other robots on the field. If you spent time completing all three steps in code and then testing, I say that's time wasted that could have been spent perfecting your autonomous mode, or spent making your robot the easiest machine to control on the field.



I don't want to sound like a nag or a nay-sayer, and I don't want to keep you from learning or failure. I'm trying to offer my words of wisdom having spent 4 years as a student in FIRST and a year as a mentor in FIRST.

There's a reason all cars don't drive themselves, this AI stuff isn't as easy as you think it may be.