The autonomous period is where the robot acts on its own, with no commands from the driver — and it's also where programming mistakes become most obvious, because there's no way to correct them on the fly.
Autonomous in the SDKLink to this section
An autonomous routine has its own structure within the SDK, different from TeleOp: instead of reacting to real-time commands, the code runs a pre-defined sequence of actions.
- Understand how an autonomous routine works in the SDK.
- Learn the basic structure of a routine.
CalibrationLink to this section
Without calibration, the robot doesn't know exactly how far it moves per wheel rotation or how long it takes to cover a distance — small calibration errors add up and make the autonomous drift away from what's expected.
- Understand why the robot needs to be calibrated.
- Make the basic adjustments before running a routine.
First routineLink to this section
Building a simple autonomous — moving the robot a set distance, for example — is the first step before attempting more elaborate routines. Testing and tweaking repeatedly is normal and expected at this stage.
- Build a simple autonomous routine.
- Test basic movements and tune the behavior.
Beyond the plain SDKLink to this section
Competitive teams usually move on to specialized pathing libraries (covered in the next lesson) to build autonomous routines that are more precise and complete than what's practical with the plain SDK alone.
- Understand that competitive teams usually use tools and libraries to build more complete autonomous routines.
- Get familiar with this reality without diving into the more advanced solutions yet.