For this years game, how are the zones numbered? Is the zone nearest to the driver zone 1 or zone 3? Or is the numbering independent of what team you are on? I am wondering because on the driver station, you can set station Red 1-3, or Blue 1-3. The team color is obvious and you can easily assume position 2 is in the middle. However, which side is position 1 and which is position 3?
By tradition: Robot placement doesn’t matter; just be in the right place to be in a starting zone. Driver stations are 1, 2, 3 L->R on each side.
I’m pretty sure that in competition, this will be set automatically. Don’t worry about it too much.
Blue Zone, Midfield, Red Zone (no numbers)
To amplify what Eric said, the position numbers refer to which spot in the alliance station your drivers are set up in. They have nothing to do with where on the field your robot begins. If your autonomous strategy changes based on which zone you’re starting out in, you’ll need to find your own way for the robot to know where it is.
Perhaps the apparent size of the vision target could be helpful here. Perhaps you can figure out a way to get the information from the Driver Station before the match begins. Perhaps a three-position switch on your robot is the best answer.
Also, don’t count on the system telling you what color your robot is either. There is a variable that should be populated, but we had inconsistent results last year. We also thought the field told us which position we started in as well.
We managed to score a few times in portland during autonomous last year, and it was pure luck that the robot got the right color information those times.
As Alan said, the best way is to directly tell the robot either via a switch on the DS or a switch on the robot.