Number of Drivers/Operators?
 

Hi all,

Our team is in a conflict about driving at the competition.

I used to be in FRC and I'm used to having one driver who controls the robot drive and one operator the arm and other stuff.

this year I started a new team in a new country, with no one else having experience in FRC.

Other team members insist that it is easier to have only one person control the entire robot. This became possible because we're using a xbox controller.

However, we haven't practiced controlling at all during the building season (didn't build field components, not many totes as a rookie team). I strongly believe it's way better to have two people when driving the robot.

What do you think of this, how many people should we have to control the robot? Also, if there's any team that has only one driver to control the robot, I'd like to hear about it.


Thanks!!

Re: Number of Drivers/Operators?
 

Whatever works for your team, and is intuitive to your drive team is what you should use.

My rule of thumb is if the driver(s) can easily control the robot without looking at their controls, then we've done a good job.

Re: Number of Drivers/Operators?
 

I think it all depends on the game and driver preference, in 2013 we discovered it was quicker to have the driver shoot and drive last year however it was easier to have the driver shoot, drive. And the operator control the ball pick up... For this years robot the driver does the driving and tote stacker while the operater controlles the two's RC arms. Because the RC srms can literally do about 20 things, as a rookie team u think about tank depends on what your robot does, if it ibly stack totes I would let the driver do everything as lining up to the totes is the key to picking the up but if you have the RC arms I would deffinelty let the operator operate that so when the driver is worrying about totes the operator can grab an RC that's in range

Re: Number of Drivers/Operators?
 

Our team has always done one driver one operator, but I think it depends greatly on a few things.

1. The game
This year I think it would be detrimental to have one person controlling everything on the robot no matter how much practice or expertise they have. One person needs to be specifically paying attention to where your bot is on the field, and be responsible to carefully maneuvering it around obstacles. This is a game where one wrong turn could ruin a match.

2. The Robot
It also greatly depends on how simple/complex your robot is. Being the driver for our team this year, I can confidently say that I would have limited to no success completely controlling our robot. Even though it may seem simple at first looking at possible controls and what tasks need to be done, the chance for error while trying to multitask is far too high.

There are of course many other, more specific factors that would effect the situation, but generally I think it's best to have two people working together to drive and operate your teams robot.

Re: Number of Drivers/Operators?
 

It depends on the robot, and on the team. However, 90% of the time, you will want two. One would control the drivetrain and anything critical to the drivetrain (or that makes sense to have with the drivetrain). The other controls everything else.

That being said, it is entirely possible to run one driver and have the other being either a spotter or assisting the HP. We did that last year, with the help of a lot of automation on the robot.

Re: Number of Drivers/Operators?
 

Our robot can be fully controlled with one driver... there will be two always at around the controls, the other second driver guidance/navigation and in some cases can take control of the arm if the main driver wants to solely concentrate on driving at any time during the match. Coach also helps with decision making and getting team ready to go queuing etc...pre-game strategy.

This game is all about efficiency so if one is efficient (at the moment) we use one, if two is we use two. Only 135 seconds!

The one human player will either be a noodle/bin load specialist assuming we get human player station with chute door -OR- Noodle thrower specialist. The second driver can also if able throw noodles if match dictates that strategy.

DRIVE TEAM – one (1) COACH, two (2) DRIVERS, and one (1) HUMAN PLAYER from the same FRC Team who are responsible for ROBOT operation during a particular MATCH. So 4 humans on field any one match. 3 actually in game play.

So in all we have ONE main driver.... Multiple Coaches, Multiple Second Drivers and Multiple Human players in the mix...this will fluctuate as game matches based on scouting needs dictate.

We deemed early that this game requires the skills of one main/primary driver..so he received the most practice after being identified as the most ready (We lost two of our best drivers that aged out from last year..one is now a mentor/coach) second drivers also received solo drive practice time while human players spent time specializing.

Last year we used both drivers and occasional human player... every year is different. Best if the entire team realizes we are going to try to get all involved who want to be part of the drive team somehow. There are many who just want to watch the matches unfold.

Best to gain consensus from all involved if possible... think in general most were OK with the single main driver concept. they know its hard to get to St. Loius by winning the regional/divisional...without the best at the controls which in effect doubles/triples the robot efficiency.

We have always had a single driver. And this year it's me. I bought my own flight stick and have been practicing with Sims. I'm pretty good with it now but it's hard to say exactly as I have had about 30 minutes of driving practice and 0 minutes of practice with the elevator. It shouldn't be an issue for just one as all I have to do is drive around and making the elevator go up and down. There's no other control. That way we have a human player and a coach. The coach is the lead programmer which helps since he really knows the limitations in control. Should be fun as this is my first year on the drive team.

Re: Number of Drivers/Operators?
 

It very much depends on the game, your robot design, your UI design, and the capabilities of your driver. If the driver can do it all, this leaves the "gunner" free to monitor the robot while the coach watches the whole field and the driver can focus on one thing at a time.

• This year, we hope to have the roboRIO be the gunner - we're trying to automate all the high-repetition tasks like alignment, lifting, stacking, and scoring stacks.
• Last year (Aerial Assist), our driver did do all the driving and shooting.
• In Ultimate Ascent, the gunner handled the climb only. Cimbing was a bit of a moving target for us as the frisbee was top priority. We never did get the procedure down well enough for the drivers to get any practice.
• In Rebound Rumble (our rookie year), our robot just had too many moving parts and too little advanced programming for one person to do it all.