Yeah it is a good thing to have i mean on an educational level cause you have know how it works before you play.
I think autonomous really adds to the game. It’s been pretty much distinguishing how well a team does, and gives the programmers something to do. I’m all for keeping it next year, and it really tells you how good a team is at the game as a whole, and not just mechanically at building a robot. Having good autonomous is probably the most important thing this year, and hope they don’t take it away for next year.
I’ve been thinking about it, and I believe there definitely will be an autonomous mode next year. If you remember, on the game submission thing it asked what sensors you would like the game to highlight.
Hehe, I really will have a job again next year!
I definitely liked the 15 seconds of autonomous. It made the game a lot more interesting. A cool, new twist for next year might be to put the 15 seconds at the end of the match… that would definitely be challenging!
that would def. make sensors important
KEEP IT.
I’d love to see it only run for ~10 seconds though.
The problem I find with the last 10 seconds for an autonomous mode is that the game would lack a “home zone” which has been there forawhile now. I like the idea of a homezone, be it where you started or even on top of a giant ramp. It highlights the ability for a team to push, take punishment, and simply move well with a drivetrain.
Though if the autonomous mode is only 10 seconds, this I wouldn’t mind either. Just no more than 15!!!
As for new sensors, what do YOU think we should have? We have optical and rotation sensors, a gyroscope… What new sensors can the FIRST kit provide that may be useful for a new autonmous mode?
on the topic of a homezone, why can you do that in auto? that way you would have some sort of idea of what to program, instead of just random driving around like it would be w/o a homezone. But it would def. be foolish to get rid of the idea… unless they find something cooler of course
*Originally posted by Powers *
**on the topic of a homezone, why can you do that in auto? that way you would have some sort of idea of what to program, instead of just random driving around like it would be w/o a homezone. But it would def. be foolish to get rid of the idea… unless they find something cooler of course **
Perhaps it wouldn’t be so hard if the homezone was covered in reflective tape. It’d FINALLY catch on!
I vote against autonomous mode.
Basically, it is as a killer on 2 levels: It is a huge increase in time and energy (and pressure) for the coders. It all but requires teams to do dangerous things in and around the pits.
It IS cool, but it is also such a huge advantage if you can pull it off that teams that want to be in the hunt push themselves that much harder to make it happen. For our team that resulted in us doing what we have NEVER done before: complete a practice robot. It has also ment 4 or 5 times the effrot from the coding team to get the best our of the auton code. Encouraging this level of extra effort is not in the long-term best interest of FIRST.
As to safety, I have never seen as many near misses in the pits as I have this year. My own team is no exception, we try to be as safe as we can but we are not always successful – my apologies to the HOT team and the Killer Bees, our pit neighbors in Ypsilanti :-0 It is down-right dangerous out there due to people trying out the latest changes/tweaks to their autonomous code.
If FIRST keeps autonomous next year, I believe they will have to address these two issues: burning out coders and hurting someone in and around the pits.
JOe J.
Keep Autonomous Mode! It’s awesome… although it is hard for the code people I’m sure, it is also hard for the scouters. Autonomous mode has added a whole new factor for us scouters, but it makes the game much more interesting, and it’s one of the easiest times to make an impact on another team (such as messing up their auto. mode :laughs evily: 
).
Anyways, keep the auto. mode!
I must say I disagree with you Joe. Making code work for controlling motors is maybe a one to two hour job at most. Where is the experience in that? And before this year teams made only one program, I’m guessing. This year we have 9. I say auton gives programmers good experience more in line with what would occur in the real world. In the real world, programmers make robots act like- well, robots. They take inputs from their environment and respond accordingly.
On burning out:
I did practically all the programming for my team, and though it exhausted me at times, I loved it! I was important! Anyway, aside from a slight caffeine addiction that sprang up during my programming sessions, I was fine.
The autonomous mode this year is a big thrill but also can be a big advantage for teams that do it well. I would like to see it stay but with some tweaks to help it level the playing field a little. Although, anyone who has been watching the regionals will tell you that teams still make it to the finals without full auto because there is still 00:01:45:00 of driver stick time before the end of the match.
I must agree with Joe on the safety issue in the pits. Auto isn’t the only driving factor though. Teams need to be much more careful in the pits and we need to stress safety.(both in testing and in working on the robot. Stressing safety glasses in the pit is the first on the list.) Above all, teams need to remember to run tethered in the pit. We know that several teams tested in their pit without tether at each of the regionals we have attended. For the most part it was difficult to tell whether this caused any of the control errors seen on practice day or not. It is just a bad habit to get into.