Tips for Driver Practice
 

Hello all!!

So my team is starting driver's practice this week to get ready for our first regional in Dallas in 3 weeks. We've been practicing every year since we started making practice robots (2012) but most of the time was spent on improving the robot. Seeing how this year is a fairly simple game, driving is going to be very crucial to how successful the team can be, we want to focus on driving a lot more than previous years. I was wondering, what are some tips/things that other teams do for their driver practices sessions?

Any advise is welcomed!!! :)

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

I don't really know what sort resources you guys have available, but an exercise we always like to run is to have your main bot try to score while a secondary bot (either a test bot/practice bot/bot from another year) places defense on it.

Additionally, test out the other elements of the game your robot can perform such as:
-catching*
-truss pass*
-light pass*
-low goal
-high goal

*have human players simulate other robots for these exercises

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

Try to get another local team or two to practice with, if possible. It doesn't matter how awesome your robot is if you can't work with others. You're doomed to go down in flames if you try to do it yourself.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

Have someone hassle the robot with a robot cart. You're most likely going to need to score on the run this year especially during the elims.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

I posted this in another thread but it applies here as well:

Work on game specific situations in practice this week such as: human loading/unloading, assisting, truss tossing, pulling a motor pwm from a motor controller, missing an autonomous shot, etc. In order to have a better feel for matches and to learn more about what your robot and drivers are capable of. Another thing that I like to do is blindfold my drivers to where they can only listen to me while driving. This make both parties better in communication, but make sure to have your thumb by the disable button on your driver station . Good Luck this Season!

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

Have a couple drills.
for driver skills. Figure eight or barrel racing pattern. This will help famaliarize the driver with the controls. Use it as a warm up each practice.

To practice taking commands. Mark out 4 to 6 spot on the floor. Have the drover collect the ball, drop it off at a particular spot the drive to another spot.

Also have a couple plays you practice . Your main single team exercise. An alternate. Get those rock solids.

Having dummy defense and scoring around obstacles is good as well. You may want to practice moving a dead partner out of the way as well this year.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

To start we usually setup and obstacle course with a few different game elements: driving fast along the side of the field without smashing into the barrier, driving around obstacles, picking up the game piece, and scoring the game piece. This is drill type about speed in completing game tasks. Usually myself and another coach (who both used to be drivers when we were students) set a time on the course with 1-2 attempts. Then we have the students try to beat it. They usually do, by making vast improvements in their driving skills when they see just what a robot can do. This usually results in some very interesting variations in how to approach an obstacle course too.

Another type of drill we do we humorously call "screwing with the drivers". We have them do various game actions in a random fashion, emphasizing adaptability and reaction time. My favorite variation this year was having the robot in the middle of 4 people and each person had the choice of rolling the ball along the ground, tossing it to the robot, or tossing it to another one of the 4 people. The drivers (and drive coach) had to react to each move in a split second to acquire the ball and then 'score' it at one of two goal locations.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

muscle memory, our team does the same thing over and over again the gain muscle memory when we get to the competition. other things we focused on was range of our shot, and the quickest way to make a cycle.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

^^ THIS

Repetition is key. Develop a few drills and run them non stop until you're sick and then run them some more. One drill we have been working on is to receive ball from human player, pass over truss, pick up ball, score in high. Repeat, but score in low and alternate back and forth. The picking up off the ground and low goal scoring will help practice passing/receiving as well. Place some obstacles like garbage cans and recycling bins around the field to make the drivers work. Do this until you don't have any charged batteries left and then take a break. Repeat when batteries are charged.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

I love the idea of pulling a motor pwm out to simulate what could go wrong in a match.

And I've thought of blindfolding the drivers but we don't have a full field (only 1/4 of FRC carpet) and I don't want to damage anything or anyone but I'll keep that in mind for if we do get a chance to practice on a full field before one of our competitions.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

This sounds like a pretty awesome idea!! How have your drivers responded to this type of practice?

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

I posted our team's approach in 2011:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...48&postcount=9

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

Its similar to having a good defensive bot in terms of drive frustration. Good driver candidates handle it well and get better. The ones that get overly frustrated or flustered usually don't wind up being drivers. I suppose it makes a good litmus test for who is good under pressure.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

Put someone in charge of timing the practice runs for each section's length. The worst thing you can do for your batteries is to let your enthusiasm for practicing run the batteries into the ground. Mileages vary but five minutes of hard practice is a good rule of thumb for those without explicit measurement tools. Wait. You say you only have eight batteries? Yes, that does mean only 40 minutes of driving time unless you're charging during practice. How many minutes driving do you get at qualifications? Would you start match 2 with the same battery as match 1? Why would it differ at practice?

In short, change batteries frequently. Put the one just used onto a charger very soon after it comes out of service. Do not let the last batteries of the day wait until your next meeting to get their electrons jolted back into shape. Think of driving practice as competition practice. Those pit crews at NASCAR never just go through the motions.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

From another thread, for consideration in this one...

I do very much agree with timing practice sessions. It helps reinforce how much time is actually in a match as well as protecting batteries. The "practice" option in the operator interface is great for this.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

I already posted about this elsewhere but I will say it again since I don't feel like copy and pasting.

Start off by identifying your drive system and learning the advantages and disadvantages of that.
For example this year the team I am working with is using tank drive and while it is great for turning on a dime I also wanted drivers to be aware that tank drive also can handle gentle curves elegantly. For the most basic drivers I would have them do figure 8's inside a circle of cones and I would slowly make the circle smaller, while the more advanced drivers would get courses where it was incorporated into other obstacles like things that block vision to simulate what to do when you can't see your robot completely.

I am currently writing up a bunch of drive activities on a google drive if you are interested please contact me!

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

Its super simple, but I recommend setting up the drive station in practice mode and running a full match. Do 2:30 of your game. Take a look at the set up tab, but it preconfigs a 10 sec auton and then 140 of Teleop.

Nobody else is on the field, do what you can to maximize points.

Re: Tips for Driver Practice
 

A few tips:

*Note this is upon determining who is the final drivers which is done by a different metric*

We typically will give our drivers some time to adjust to the controls and get used to what they are doing. For me as the drive coach I typically will spend my time standing in the room watching not saying a word unless they are about to break something. Giving drivers time to learn on their own and see how they communicate without a drive coach is essential. It also gives the drivers an easier/less stressful environment to get used to the robot without a drive coach over their shoulder.

Once I see our drivers are at a comfortable level we start running practice matches (auto + teleop). Again I still do not "coach" but instead watch. After each match we discuss what they did good, what they did well, and what they should improve upon/watch for in the next match. We usually run 2-3 matches then have a 10 minute cool down.

We keep running these practice matches as much as we can each time trying something new. Last year I would call out what side of the pyramid they needed to line up on as they were doing each cycle or change the feeder station. I also like using trashcans/old robots as best I can. We never get a chance to get a defense robot running so instead I would change up the field between each cycle so our driver got a good taste for picking a new route and always had a new obstacle to get around.

In addition to on field practice I like to sit down with the drivers to discuss the rules, strategy, game play, contingency plans, communication, etc as well as getting their opinions/thoughts on how we should approach a match/tournament. I also encourage our operator to take home a gamepad and imagine the robot in a match and what buttons they have to practice for "virtual simulations". I find for our operators this is a good way to really nail down the controls as they need to get to a level where they don't need to think about what to press they just do it.

Oh, and the most important is to make sure they not only read but UNDERSTAND the rules.