At the Pitt County (NC) event, we noticed that the field software was not properly scoring climbing - if a robot climbs, hits the TouchPad for a second, then falls before time runs out, the software still scores the climbing points.
Anybody else see this?
What signal are you using to determine when time runs out?
I saw a climb/failure. The climb was scored (points on the Audience Display). Then the robot slid down, and the touch pad went off, and the climbing points removed.
If it happens in the last second of the match, FMS may have ended the match before you hear the buzzer. In that case the robot may still have depressed the touchpad at the time t=0 (from FMS’s point of view). You may have then seen the robot drop (motors loose power at t=0) before you heard the buzzer.
*Maybe this has been asked and answered before, but I could not find it. Who designs and codes the field software?
I also saw that problem at that event. I asked the head ref and she said that the touch pad has to be touched when the field computers think its T=0 and not necessarily when the score board shows T=0. It would be nice if they could keep the two in sync.
The Field Management System or FMS is designed and Maintain by FIRST HQ
Are you saying that FIRST HQ has software engineers on staff to design and code the software for FMS? If so, what do those software engineers do the rest of the year?
Or if they contract it out, do they no-bid it to a preferred contractor, or do that put it out for bids? And if the latter, who won the contract this year?
Yes, FMS is developed/maintained by people who work for FIRST HQ. During the competition season, they maintain FMS and provide support for ongoing events over Skype. I’d imagine they work on the next year’s field electronics/software during the offseason.
IIRC, FIRST used to contract some amount of FMS development (I don’t know the exact details) to a company called 4FX Design (you can see their logo on the old event results pages), but starting with the 2015 season, they took FMS development in-house
