2012 Lesson's Learned

[karomata]

Find what your team is good at, and use it in any way you can.

[JesseK]

Figure out what your team can be unique about and make it perfect. We were "good" at autonomous before champs, but on Thursday we

1.) Planned to be on the left or right corner of the key only in order to be out of the way of an alliance that also backed up to the bridges
2.) Tuned the minimum timing of our first shot down to 3 seconds after an interference in our 2nd match
3.) Found the theoretical maximum for the last ball to leave our bot and still clear the rim in auton
4.) Made a sighting mechanism that could aim at the bolts connecting the rim to the backboard
5.) Found the difference in manual alignment between a hard and soft ball for auton
6.) Showcased the adjustable timing of autonomous so as to not interfere with balls from other bots

This led to a 92% (13 of 14) autonomous accuracy after our 2nd match on Thursday. It also led to being on some short lists Saturday and eventually got us picked for the 5th alliance.