pic: Team 368 at the San Diego Regional 2007

[Alan Ing]

Hi Eric,

We enjoyed talking to you at the competition this year. Hate to say it, but yeah, no camera, just good old dead reckoning. We hadn't even planned to implement it, but one of our students and mentors decided to give it a go just before the pits closed on Thursday. I must say that it was surprisingly effective and probably won a couple of our matches for us. I only wish I hadn't interfered with them and not told them to go for the lower spider as they originally wanted to get the middle spider. My mistake, might have helped us even more.

That funny dance was actually the machine correcting its distance to the target via the encoders prior to deploying the arm with the ringer. I must say that it did look a bit strange doing that dance before making its final approach.

For anyone who hasn't tried dead reckoning autonomous, give it a try. Its a bit easier than you might think. 50% ain't bad for 30 minutes of coding.