I was wondering how many teams have a working, scoring autonomous mode and how well it works for them (how many balls, reliability, etc). Are you planning on starting with balls in the robot or not?
As for us we’re planning on starting with at least five and being able to score them all during autonomous each match.
Our robot’s best is 5/7 balls. We use just the camera for autonomous.
We will be starting with the full complement of 7 balls, but will not be attempting to score any in autonomous even though we are attempting to develop the camera code for teleop anyway.
We believe that any advantages of scoring in auto are not worth the risks of the camera locking on to a target over a robot or a number of other things that would cause us to miss.
We found the camera easy to work with and reliable, and so we decided it would be worth it. Plus it gets us moving and away from the human players.
Ditto.
It is amazing to watch this thing hunt down and nail it’s target. WHAT A BLAST!!!
I agree. We had so many problems with the green light camera and the infrared sensors- having this camera work perfectly is a blast.
Team 904 has successfully scored in autonomous mode using the camera. I believe we scored 4 or 5 moon rocks on a moving trailer. We have other autonomous modes too. We have been looking at implementing some of the camera capabilities in tele-op.
Here is a video of our autonomous a day or two before ship:
I was a bit disappointed when we learned there was no scoring bonus for autonomous this year. 
Anyone have a clue as to why?
I agree, it’s very disappointing. The only advantage to having a moving autonomous is that you’re now a moving target for the human players.
As regional and district events begin, I’d like to know how many teams are scoring autonomously (not with the Payload Specialist) and I’d also like to know how you developed your software, either Wind River or LabVIEW. Looking forward to your reply.
Thanks,
We had our autonomous working and following using camera and ultrasonic but we only scored once towards the end when we finally got it working
1712 was able to score in autonomous 4 times over the weekend at the DC regional.
Rather than scoring my team (612) simply sets up in Autonomous. We will track the trailer and get in position to score so once teleoperated starts we start shooting. We tried scoring earlier but only got 4 balls in. We felt it wasn’t worth the risk trying to score in Auto mode in New Jersey but we will try again at VCU on practice day.
My team has always started out with some usually ~5 because of our robot, but we do that because once teleop starts that’s 5 balls ready. Most teams will put some # on. Most autonomous codes consist of go strait or turn left or right and then go straight. Or some other variation.
We only held 2 in our main hopper b/c we didnt want to risk a full load. The other balls were in our conveyor ready to drop into the hopper. Overall, there’s way too much traffic on the field, at least there was in NJ.
throughout the entire NJ regional, i did not once see a robot attempt to score during autonomous. most of the robots moved though, following a ‘go straight and spin’ pattern, which ended up with a different orientation each match.
I too am curious, for all of the teams whose robot scored in autonomous mode, what programming environment did you use? Labview or WindRiver?
Labview
we talked to the NI guy who did most of the programming stuff related to the making of the system. he did wonders to our programming and said we where in the right place to use labview.
That’s what I said.