im a sudent in school messng with these robots so i obvoiusly am not any sort of expert involving these kinds of things... however i am sure that this is a problem.

i downloaded the correct firmware according to insructions and then compiled and downloded a pre-set program to run...however, no matter how many times i run this program with the robot it never does the same thing. help me.

Well, if you think that there is a problem, then you need to give more information. What it your program? It helps to post it so we can see if it is programming issue. When you say pre-set program, are you referring to a sample program? What does the robot do as of now, and what do you expect it to do instead? The more information you give, the more help that you can get.

i attached the saple progra i am tying to run... it is supposed to move forward while pointing the arm downward until it reaches a ball. then it is supposed to lift the arm (with the ball captured) and start moving backwards until it reaches its starting position once again. at which point it will turn 90 degrees, move forwad slightly, and lower the ball into the drop off zone.

It does EVERYTHING stated... however it will go for shorter or further distances each time i run it without m tampering with the program.

p.s. thanks for the help and any further advice

The problem you're seeing may be related to to the momentum the robot builds up in each of it's movements, and the corresponding drift that occurs at the end of the movement. Unfortunately drift isn't entirely predictable, but dealing with it is definitely a part of working with robots.

You can do things like try to stop the motors briefly between your movements, or even provide a small amount of braking power to fight the momentum.