How do you select drivers?

[Brian Maher]

Our team is trying to figure out the best way to choose drivers. In the past, we have used a simple robot driving test on a course marked by traffic cones; we have found this test only reflects part of what makes for a good driver.

What does your team do?

[John Retkowski]

Driver tests and obstacle courses can be useful, but we find it best to conduct most of our driver training during off season. Having new drivers practice with the bot rigorously helps them not only get experience, but also helps in finding out what mechanisms, motors, wires, tubing, etc... may have worn out so that we can replace them before off season competitions. After all the practice, we can more accurately see how drivers perform in actual matches at off season events, as well as them getting to see what a real match is like with five other robots.

[Brandon Ha]

I suggest you take a look at a Simbotics Seminar. Specifically, the Running a FRC Team episode. (Near 40 minutes) Karthik does a stellar job of detailing how the decision should be made and what things to look for in such a student.

Personally, if I had to make a decision for the drivers, my criteria as the coach would be
#1 Can I work with this person.
If your team cant stand you yelling and screaming at them and understand that it is because you want them to succeed and maybe it was a little loud or you wanted to be clear with them.
#2 How will they conduct themselves with the team and the game.
Your team has to have balls of steels and push everything to the edge of failure. One personal example is in 2012 for my team. Our driver needs to get up onto the bridge and balance. Arm mechanism doesn't work, alliance doesn't have another method. What he does is he uses the high COG and "rocks" the robot to lift our front wheels up and onto the bridge... That is not how the team built nor designed it but he pushed the edge and succeeded.
The other part is how they conduct themselves. Are they gracious professionals? Do they win as an alliance and lose as a team? What about their communication skills. Can they talk with others to tell or fix the issues. We do not want to go onto the field and wait for 5 minutes to find out that they forgot to put a battery in. This is the easiest part because you can make them take a clipboard with what to do every single match or teach them beforehand.

[Monochron]

We aim to chose our drive team basically using the guidelines set out in Karthik's recent talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ALASWt2uDqw&list=UUUSvVNsNpOX8kFryYAO4NTA#t=2522

I think the more common question though is what exactly is the process by which you select these students. As for that last year we had a conference between engineering / strategy mentors and our Elders Council. The Elders Council is a formalized group of 3 "top" students plus the team Captain who we consult for decisions that require expediency and may be tough calls.

The Elders Council acts, in some ways, as a voice for the team but is also intended to prevent long drawn out discussions when hard decisions need to be made. We make an emphasis that each student should approach the meetings with a mature attitude, understanding that we will need to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their team mates and, occasionally, themselves. So far it has worked fantastically.

It is much easier to say to a team of students who are used to running the team "Your Elders Council and mentors pick these students for the drive team" than to say "us mentors have picked these students for the drive team".

[TimTheGreat]

Our team usually has the either the lead programmer and lead mechanic, or the two most senior/experienced members. We do the former because they are the ones who will generally fix things during testing, so if they can fix a part and test it over and over, they get driving experience just by taking the robot to a practice field for a few minutes at a time and driving around.

[AdamHeard]

We aim to chose our drive team basically using the guidelines set out in Karthik's recent talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ALASWt2uDqw&list=UUUSvVNsNpOX8kFryYAO4NTA#t=2522


This is the way to do it.

[Karthik]

We aim to chose our drive team basically using the guidelines set out in Karthik's recent talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ALASWt2uDqw&list=UUUSvVNsNpOX8kFryYAO4NTA#t=2522

The slides for this talk can be found in this post.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1403250&postcount=9

[BriteBacon]

We try to have anybody on the drive team to have at least a year of scouting first. We also try to have anybody interested the chance to drive at on off-season event. We do this because it is a very different experience from driving in the shop and driving at an event. This will filter out students who can't take the pressure of being on the drive team. We also make sure they know the rules by giving out a rule test, the test covers the way the game works and most of the penalties that they could be faced with.

[pyroslev]

Age old question, for which there is no one size fits all answer.
My wish list overall is four big things.


You want someone who knows how the robot was built/programmed. As in they helped build and repair it. If they know what the robot is truly made of, they can hopefully treat it with respect it deserves instead of abusing it like some drivers do. It'll also help in situations where damage happens. They can diagnose the issue, possibly, and ideally drive the robot smartly without more damage while being effective in a close match. And if they helped program the robot, then that will help in it's own way.

You want someone with a good handle on their emotions. You don't want a hot head who will accost people or an apathetic person who won't challenge an easy penalty. You do want some one who is passionate about what they're doing. Social skills with others fits into this category as well.

Rule knowledge is a must. Photographic memory isn't required but a working knowledge of the rules, how to play the game in it's current evolution and a little capacity to predict the next move move will make the entire team happy.

If they're already driving a vehicle, make sure they've got a good driving history there. (Silly sounding but actually can tell you volumes)


Beyond that, there are many more things you need to take into consideration. That's where your own judgement comes into play as it relates to your team. Even before the season starts, be on the look out for good students. Watch their progress so that when the season starts you can keep an eye on all the good candidates. Clear leaders for the drive team will become apparent as early as the day after kick off. By the time Week 3 is ending, your pool of candidates should be fairly narrowed down just by who's committed the most time. From there, you've got to make the decision that will work best for the team as a whole.

So bottom line: Don't be picking your drive team/drivers 2 minutes before the Driver's Meeting.

[HelloRobot]

Selections for drivers should be based on skill/experience with the current year's robot, work ethic (including participation throughout build season, probably present at least 75 or 80% of the build meetings), and teamwork skills - NOT seniority alone (though older members might have more experience. Still, there's more to a team member than his or her age.).

Last season, there was a practice game field set up at a local manufacturing center (the MDF in west Knoxville), and around week 5, they had a team scrimmage with 6 or 7 teams. It was pretty good for practice and scouting. If any other cities have the ability to do something like that, it would be good for drivers to practice. :)

To be a good driver, you and the robot have to play the game well. Also, human players might need a bit of practice outside of regionals. I think being able to play the game and maneuver the robot are extremely important. So is following the rules! Fouls can turn the tides in a match. (I think we've all seen that happen at some point) And of course, a great game strategy will make your alliance strong. I've heard, "the best defense is a good offense."

Disclaimer: As a rookie captain, I have not had to select drivers yet. BUT I, personally, have been in FRC for the last two seasons.

[Jacob Bendicksen]

We try to have our driver carry over from year to year, since we use more or less the same drive base each year (tank drive with some game-specific modifications). When there's an open position on drive team (often human player, sometimes co-pilot and drive coach), anyone who wants to be considered needs to fill their desired role at one (preferably two) of our offseason events. We just picked our drive coach yesterday, so our driver and drive coach for 2015 are set. Once build season starts, we'll see who's interested in filling the co-pilot and human player roles. The drive coach and driver will take the lead in choosing who will make it to drive team, since they'll be the people who need to work together.

And of course, all of them need to know the rules inside and out and work well with other teams.

[Monochron]

Selections for drivers should be based on skill/experience with the current year's robot, work ethic (including participation throughout build season, probably present at least 75 or 80% of the build meetings), and teamwork skills - NOT seniority alone (though older members might have more experience. Still, there's more to a team member than his or her age.).
I would disagree with those first two criteria you have. Work ethic does very little to tell you if a person will be able to take the pressure and responsibility of being a driver. It may tell you how much effort a person will put in, but effort only goes so far.
Skill and experience on the robot from last season is useful, but both can be taught during build season if need be. Teaching these before build season is much preferable, but most students can practice on the sticks and become relatively skilled. I would caution about ruling students out who simply haven't happened to drive your previous robot a lot.

[styxracer97]

My only tip is to make sure that the drive team isn't afraid to be aggressive when they have to. I've seen many matches lost due to people playing very passively.

[Brandon Ha]

My only tip is to make sure that the drive team isn't afraid to be aggressive when they have to. I've seen many matches lost due to people playing very passively.

You also want to have an coach who has a sense of field aswell.
I have seen numerous matches where a team wanted to get more points on the board instead of playing defense on the opposing team. A bigger score is never worth a loss.

[anthonyttu]

A very wise mentor once said

"I can teach a monkey to drive a robot I can't teach them to be a leader."

[Kevin Ainsworth]

Should a good driver be the best at driving the robot during a lap around cones? We debate this all the time. I agree with the statement that anyone can drive a robot. But finding a driver that can scan the field, avoid collisions, bump another robot out of scoring position while flying to their next objective, not pull a foul, listen to the coach, etc is much harder. Some of the "smartest" drivers have a hard time deviating from their objective. If they decide to get a game piece they will not deviate even if it takes them the whole match to get to that particular game piece. On the other side of the spectrum I find the drivers that are masters on the sticks the first time driving aren't always the ones that can play the game the best. You have to find a well rounded driver that can continuously get better at driving while learning how the game is played, handle the stress and handle the constant criticism. We also limit the contact directly with the driver to the coach. All ideas, criticism, game play strategies goes to the strategy team and then gets downloaded to the coach who relays it to the driver.

To answer the original question, try giving the drivers three different objectives during the drivers competition and don't dictate the order in which they perform the tasks. Then see whole comes up with a strategy to complete the three tasks the most efficiently.

[EricH]

Something that is very important to remember:

You're not picking a driver, an operator, a coach, and a human player. You're picking a drive TEAM.

If the driver, operator, and coach don't work well together, you are toast. You could send out 1114's 2008 robot or 71's 2002 robot, and not win anything, if those three aren't in sync. Even with the #1 best operator, the #1 best driver, and the #1 best coach, if they aren't all working together, they're going to have a problem.

So don't just test out your drivers and your other drive team members. Test different pairings of them. See who works together the best, and stick with that crew for the year(s). If you've got them appearing to use telepathy, you're in good shape.

[artK]

We try to have anybody on the drive team to have at least a year of scouting first.

This is an interesting recommendation: Why do you believe it to be good? Is it to train the future drivers what good teams on the field do? Is it to give drivers a background in strategy?

[HelloRobot]

Work ethic does very little to tell you if a person will be able to take the pressure and responsibility of being a driver...
Skill and experience on the robot from last season is useful, but both can be taught during build season if need be. Teaching these before build season is much preferable, but most students can practice on the sticks and become relatively skilled.
I wasn't clear. I meant whoever has good experience driving the robot that they just built. So, for this season, it would be the 2015 robot, not the Aerial Assist one.

You're probably right about work ethic too. We just want someone who knows how to drive the robot skillfully. I know we'll want people with good work ethic in our Pit, but I guess we shouldn't make assumptions.

[HelloRobot]

Is it to train the future drivers what good teams on the field do? Is it to give drivers a background in strategy?
Personally, I think teams need to have a strategy (what the robot will do, and how it will do it), and their drivers should be able to execute that strategy. Part of the strategy is knowing how to control the "shooter" (whatever moved the 2014 ball, shot the 2013 frisbees, etc.), but they also have to maneuver around the five other robots on the field (and maybe cooperate with others, like in Aerial ASSIST.). In that regard, it would be helpful if they had scouted at a regional (or at least watched a few matches) so they see how teams had to work together. On the other hand, your drivers should be adaptable too. What if one of your alliance partners has an awesome strategy, but your drivers have trouble executing it? That could be a problem.

Generally, at least one veteran member or FIRSTer should be on your drive team so that they have a basic idea of what to do to be successful (and lead newbie drivers). The exception to this would be rookies who have pretty much all newbies. However you decide is up to you though. Every team has its own identity, and what works for one might not work for another. Just be able to have a drive team that works well together and with other.

[Ether]

Our team is trying to figure out the best way to choose drivers

http://youtu.be/ALASWt2uDqw?t=47m10s

http://youtu.be/ALASWt2uDqw?t=54m31s

http://youtu.be/ALASWt2uDqw?t=58m24s