# Autonomous Control The autonomous control period in VEX Competitions is currently 15 seconds and 45 seconds for VRC and VEXU respectively. During autonomous, the robot is controlled by pre-programmed controls rather than driver input from the [VEX controller](/vex-electronics/vex-electronics/vex-joystick.md). Although autonomous constitutes a small fraction of the total time in a match, this phase is the most challenging part of programming a robot (especially for newer teams). Due to differentiating field conditions, robot mechanical consistency, and driver setup among other factors are the reason for this. The alliance that performs the best score-wise in the autonomous period usually gains some sort of point bonus. In more recent seasons, accomplishing certain, difficult tasks, allows teams to gain an additional win point to be added to their standings. ## Teams Contributed to this Article: * [BLRS](https://purduesigbots.com/) (Purdue SIGBots) --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://wiki.purduesigbots.com/software/competition-specific/autonomous-control.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.