Drive Team Question

[donnie99]

So I thought I would pose this question here to find out what the community thinks about this topic.

During a lot of the events this year, I saw more teams than I usually do that only used one person to control their robot. This left one extra person on their drive team standing around (driver, coach, and human player are the other three). If I understand the rules right, this person would be considered a driver because a drive team needs 2 drivers, 1 human player, and 1 coach.

Some teams I saw using this person to put litter in RC's while the human player fed in the station. My question is: Is this allowed? To be more specific, is the driver allowed to put game pieces onto the field?

The reason I ask is because I've never seen this before in any game, and would like to know if it was addressed in the rules this year and if I missed it?

If there's no definite answer, would someone be able to ask this at the championship?

[MaGiC_PiKaChU]

the game pieces may be manipulated by all team members except the coach, and the robot can be controlled by the human player...

I don't know for champs if there is a rule

[EricH]

Some teams I saw using this person to put litter in RC's while the human player fed in the station. My question is: Is this allowed? To be more specific, is the driver allowed to put game pieces onto the field?

The reason I ask is because I've never seen this before in any game, and would like to know if it was addressed in the rules this year and if I missed it?


Some Q&As were asked. Functionally, the difference between the Driver, the other Driver, and the Human Player is nothing at all. Any one of the three can handle totes and litter, and any one of the three can enter totes or litter onto the field.


Now if one of them has a dot on his/her badge, that's when you have a problem. (Because that person is the coach, as far as the refs are concerned.)

[KosmicKhaos]

Yes this is allowed

per FRC Game Manual

G6-2 The CHUTE DOOR may only be operated by a DRIVER or HUMAN PLAYER.

CHUTE DOOR – The polycarbonate shield that separates the TOTE CHUTE from the FIELD, and is raised by a HUMAN PLAYER or DRIVER to release a TOTE onto the FIELD from the TOTE CHUTE.

G31 COACHES may not touch TOTES or LITTER, unless for personal safety (only says coaches may not touch totes or litter)

per q&a

Answer to question 127:
A.We cannot guarantee a TOTE will exit the TOTE CHUTE in any particular pattern, nor is the
construction of the TOTE CHUTE intended to guarantee a particular "landing style". The orientation
of the TOTES upon exiting the TOTE CHUTE is dependent on factors such as flatness of the venue
floor, assembly tolerances, and manner in which the DRIVER or HUMAN PLAYER feed the TOTE.

Answer to question 454:
A.The game sounds are not an official indicator of match time- the official timer for the match is
displayed in the middle PLAYER STATION and has a white strip of tape on it. As such, a HUMAN
PLAYER (or DRIVER) putting LITTER over the ALLIANCE WALL when the timer reads 20 seconds or
fewer would be a violation of G33-B.

[JamieKilburn]

So I thought I would pose this question here to find out what the community thinks about this topic.

During a lot of the events this year, I saw more teams than I usually do that only used one person to control their robot. This left one extra person on their drive team standing around (driver, coach, and human player are the other three). If I understand the rules right, this person would be considered a driver because a drive team needs 2 drivers, 1 human player, and 1 coach.

Some teams I saw using this person to put litter in RC's while the human player fed in the station. My question is: Is this allowed? To be more specific, is the driver allowed to put game pieces onto the field?

The reason I ask is because I've never seen this before in any game, and would like to know if it was addressed in the rules this year and if I missed it?

If there's no definite answer, would someone be able to ask this at the championship?

On the badges drive team gets, there isn't any actual identification regarding actual position, whether that's driver, operator or human player. As long as you aren't the Coach, who can't handle game pieces, any member of drive team can technically play any role.

[donnie99]

Thanks for the clarification everyone!

[Orthofort]

This isn't exactly related, but I've noticed few teams don't have an adult coach, just an extra student.

In the cases where the robot is only controlled by one driver as you described, would the team have to specifically designate a coach prior to the match? Or could they just do whatever they want as long as only 3 of the 4 students manipulate the game pieces or the robot?

[JamieKilburn]

This isn't exactly related, but I've noticed few teams don't have an adult coach, just an extra student.

In the cases where the robot is only controlled by one driver as you described, would the team have to specifically designate a coach prior to the match? Or could they just do whatever they want as long as only 3 of the 4 students manipulate the game pieces or the robot?

The coach actually has a different pin from the rest of the drive team, it has a yellow dot on it to distinguish it. So if a team only had one driver, there would be one human player, one additional member of the drive team, and the coach. The additional member can touch game objects etc, but the coach can't do anything but coach.

[EricH]

This isn't exactly related, but I've noticed few teams don't have an adult coach, just an extra student.

In the cases where the robot is only controlled by one driver as you described, would the team have to specifically designate a coach prior to the match? Or could they just do whatever they want as long as only 3 of the 4 students manipulate the game pieces or the robot?

The coach can be a student. FIRST is VERY clear on this.

The team does in fact have to "designate" a coach. It's very, very simple: Whoever has the badge with the dot on it (yellow dot this year) is the coach. If a person wearing the dotted badge is handling totes or litter, it's a foul. If they're driving the robot, the robot is disabled on the spot. (And yes, I did have to call one of those this year. Thankfully it was an early practice match.)

[KosmicKhaos]

This isn't exactly related, but I've noticed few teams don't have an adult coach, just an extra student.

per FRC Game Manual

COACH – a student or adult Mentor identified as the person wearing the designated “COACH” pin or button during a MATCH

This is normal and many teams do have student drive coaches.

In the cases where the robot is only controlled by one driver as you described, would the team have to specifically designate a coach prior to the match? Or could they just do whatever they want as long as only 3 of the 4 students manipulate the game pieces or the robot?

I'm not quite sure what you mean here but the coach has to be wearing the coach pin (the one with the silver dot) before the match. Even if he/she is a student they still may not manipulate game pieces or drive the robot. As stated above only human players or drivers can drive the robot or manipulate game pieces.