Our team has used more motors this year than I can ever remember, and I think this is a common theme, given how many teams have switched to swerve in the past few years. This being said, I would assume that many teams are running into jittering from low voltage (last few seconds of this video) earlier than they did in previous years. My team is as well.
What are some things (primarily through programming, but other suggestions are welcome) teams could do to use less power?
Accept the fact batteries are discharged after 5 minutes of practice and there is nothing you can do to alter the laws of physics.
Beyond that you could get into the nitty-gritty of algorithm optimization to remove unnecessary movements, especially if they are high current draw.
Some things cannot be solved with software and are absolutely the responsibility of other sub teams.
For programming, you can limit how much current motors use and limit acceleration.
For non-programming build things, minimize how long your wires and how many connectors are used, reduce the load your motors have to move (lighten stuff, use springs and/or counterweights, etc…) and don’t stall your motors to hold anything in place.
For non-build things, get a good battery charger with a good maintenance mode and desulfation, get in the habit of always battery becking your batteries before a match (with 130% as the target charge) and test your batteries with something like this so you only use the “good” batteries in a comp.
Use pneumatics/constant force+gas springs.
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