Sensors Not Required: FRC Design "Sans Feedback"

[Michael Corsetto]

Hey there CD Community! I have a few questions I'd like to ask.

First, to give some background. I've been working with my current team for the past two build seasons. I have a mechanical engineering background, and most of the students on my team err towards the mechanical side as well. We have a small programming team (one college mentor and one student) who do their best with LabView. We build simple and towards our strengths, and keep programming to a minimum.

The only functional sensor on our 2012 and 2013 robots is the required pressure switch for the pneumatics system!

And we've been competitive both years. Last year we had a regional win, #4 seed at Madera and #8 seed in Newton. No camera or shooter encoder, with lots of driver practice we were shooting >50% from the key. This year we seeded #1 at Davis, ran a 5 disk auto, and have an OPR of 55.0.

That said, I have two questions:

1. Are there any other team's that don't use sensors? Why? With what results?

2. Should FIRST provide bigger incentives within game design to utilize sensor feedback systems? For instance, 2005 had the random-placed vision tetras, 2007 had the rotating rack, Big Ball placement in 2008, etc. In recent years (2009-now) though, there has been little "randomness" in game design that would require advanced sensor utilization. What would a change in "emphasis" mean for FIRST teams? How much stretching in this area is appropriate?

-Mike