Robotics - Autonomous Testing

The autonomous period development is going reasonably well. The robot can use the infrared sensor without special drivers, which I was unable to install correctly. However, it can still sense the general direction of the beacon perfectly fine. We have been using that to start our autonomous programming. So far, the robot can find where the beacon is, turn, and then make a decent attempt at driving up to the pendulum. At that last step, it gets a little confused due to my slightly indiscriminate handling of direction. It also has issues turning such that the sensor (which is mounted on the side of the robot for drive-by scanning (very gangster)) is perpendicular to the beacon. We expect most of these problems to be resolved when we actually get a real field installed in our testing lab. In related news, the conveyor belt has had all the rubber inserts installed and can pick up blocks with success.