From: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/blog/2018-beta-testing-and-2017-usage-reporting

2018 Beta Testing and 2017 Usage Reporting

Written by Kevin O’Connor, FIRST Robotics Competition, Robotics Engineer

Beta Testing

This year we are once again looking for 90 teams, 30 for each software language, to help us test the 2018 FIRST Robotics Competition software. A small number of teams have been invited to bypass the application process based on past performance in Beta testing. Most of the spots are still up for grabs, though, so make sure to fill out the application found here by Sunday, September 24th, if you are interested. Beta teams will be asked to upgrade their 2017 robots to the 2018 software, perform some specific tests with any significant changes or new tools, and help educate other teams about the changes for 2018. Beta Testing will begin approximately the 2nd – 3rd week of October and each task will have specific deadlines through approximately the end of November. Teams may continue to test through Kickoff, but software starts to lock in early December so testing done in December may not be done in time to fix any bugs discovered.

2017 Usage Reporting

One of the under-the-hood features of the FRC Control System software is a system called Usage Reporting. This system tracks what WPILib objects are created in each team’s code and reports the data back to FMS when the robot is connected to the field. This data helps FIRST and our Suppliers understand how teams are using the Control System which can give us insight into things such as adoption of new features or usage of legacy classes.

Here are a few numbers from the data that teams may find interesting:

25,151

The total number of motor controllers used on 2017 robots

6,296

The total number of USB input devices used to control those motors

2,0451

Total Encoders used to get feedback from those motors

1,4122

The number of teams that used pneumatics (with the PCM) on their 2017 robot

762

The number of Digital Outputs used to control non-actuators (lights, sensors, etc.) on 2017 robots

33

Number of teams programming in Python

15

The number of Analog Outputs used to control non-actuators (sounds, lights, etc.) on 2017 robots

The complete processed data set can be found here.

A few notes on this data: