Programmers: I Have A Challenge For You

[gblake]

Originally Posted by lemiant

During the off-season this year or next year, someone should hold an all autonomous event.

<rambling>
I wish first would make a game with way more. but it would sort of wreck their "no robot left behind", since for some reason there isn't enough support for beginner programmers.
</rambling>

But I digress, anyone up to host an all-autonomous off-season?

Great idea!

Let's carry it out in a way that will let us try walking before we try to run.

I'll assert that it would be easy to produce a fully autonomous competition using Vex or Tetrix equipment and fields; and that it would be reasonably easy to replicate that competition set-up in many geographically diverse locations around North America and the rest of the planet.

Before any instinctive reaction takes hold and you reject this suggestion as being too unlike FRC, think for a minute.

The reduced diversity found in the the Vex/Terix equipment suites, the greater simplicity of the Vex/Terix computers, and all of the other factors that make a fully autonomous Vex or Tetrix match unlike an autonomous FRC match are all good things for people who want to take on David's challenge.

Working with, and succeeding with the simpler, Vex or Tetrix equipment will lay a solid foundation on which to base the FRC attempts. There will still be plenty of work to do when the project members graduate into FRC attempts; but many of the "Doh!" realizations and many of the collaboration-process SNAFUs will have been shaken out of the software and out of the project teams processes.

Think it over. Walk before running.

Blake
PS: This would not replace my earlier suggestion to use a simulator or appropriate video game as a learning tool. A Vex/Tetrix competition would complement also using a simulator.