Help with driver selection
 

Are there any tools/games to discern how well driving candidate's reflexes respond?

seeing that your a rookie team (judging from your high team number) you don't have an old robot to use for driver trials (which is what we usually do). what we did our first year was just to put up some cones on the floor, whip out an RC car, and have people compete for the fastest time around the track. anybody really can become a driver - the key is nonstop practice once you have the robot built.

We are a rookie team, but we do have two vet. members, including Sachiel7.

Get a Bop-It... it tests reflexes for the driver and also the controller.

RC car + Robot
 

Once you have a working drive base, figure out who wants to be driver. Give them 2 minutes of practice on the robot each, to be fair.

Now, get someone who is skilled with a remote control car (and does not want to be driver). Have them drive the car around a large area, and have the drivers follow it with the real robot. It's a good test of reaction times, handling the robot's speed, and (if it's tall) how to react to a tipping robot :)

Hope that helps!

Get a beach-ball and a few RC cars. See who can maintain the most control of the car. Something like one-on-one RC car soccer. :P

Competition
 

We always use the competiton as a way to test our 3 best drivers/operators/human players. It seems to work well for our team, although it might not for others (not sure). This year i'm not sure how we are going to do it though since we are doing 3 regionals, and each student is only allowed to attend 2. I guess we shall see.

When you get you drive drain Ironed out, find a large flat area, i.e Gym, Confrence room. Set up some bins in a course, and see who can navagate through the quickest, with out hitting the boxes, give penalites for later rounds after youve gotten down to the three best drivers.

I'd shy away from trying to figure out who has the best reaction times. Ya, being able to react quickly is great. Things happen fast, but they don't happen that fast.

Good aspects for a driver are:

A calm attitude. The driver is on stage, in front of hundreds (thousands) of people. If they can't handle that kind of stress, they won't drive well.

Knowledge of the game. Scores swing quickly, and being able to evaluate the field is something every drive member has to be able to do.

Knowledge of the 'bot. The driver needs to know why the bot does what it does. They should be able to tell by the feel of it if something is wrong, and have a good idea of what it is. If something breaks, the drivers should be able to figure out if they can keep going or stop.

Being able to put thier brain on the bot. Sounds odd, but its true. The best advice I ever got when I was driving was 'Stop thinking about it, just drive! It sounds corny, but the bot has to become just a natural extension of the driver. Getting from one end of the field to the other has to be as natural as walking from one end to the other. This comes part from practice and part from natural ability. So give perspective drivers as much time on RC cars as you can.

In general, the drive team members should all get along together. If youdon't work with your partner, no matter how good you are alone, you'll do poorly. These things take a team to build and a team to drive.

Thats just what stands out in my mind.

-Andy A.

Practice with the edurobot until you can get your big bot built :)

It's better than no practice at all

*jeremy

Yes, instead of buying an RC car or some type of minicar, build the edurobot and make a mini version of the competition and see who can maneuver thru the obstacles the best.

There was an old game called "Shooting Gallery" that tested how fast you could click things - pop up targets, moving targets, etc.

Oh wait, that would be for programmers or database people like me.:D

As far as drivers go, I'd go with the above suggestion of an RC car or EduRobot.

More important, however, is the chemistry between the coaches and the driver. If your driver is a stubborn idiot, it doesn't matter how well she pilots. On the flip side, if your pilot is decent, but can make quick judgements and listen to the coaches, you have a winner.

...make sure your driver knows the rules...sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised....

cyberblue goes by not only the overall skill of the driver but by the person's involvement with the team. the person that has the best reaction time and drives an RC car the fastest could also be the member that is only at one or two build times a week. if your team has a captain or lead strategist or something like that i would recommend having that person drive. it's best if your person understands exactly what the strategy is for the game. also the ability to think on one's feet is a big thing. it's been discussed that autonomous mode will be a large influence on strategies. you don't want somebody up there with no creativity.

I understand that you don't have a robot and all, but here is how I, personally, would decide upon a driver/operator. Team RAGE does not choose drivers the same way I would, but I think my way would work better :o .

First, I would test for common sense: Does the driver learn from specific mistakes made while practicing? Or does s/he keep repeating the same mistake? This sounds trivial to some, but look at it this way. If the driver doesn't learn from his/her mistake now, then when in a match and s/he tries something that doesn't work, s/he will either keep trying the failed move or sit there not knowing what to do. I do understand that it is a responsibility of the coach to tell the driver what to do, but I say that this weight should be placed on the driver, allowing the coach to worry about other things.

Next, I would test for quick reflexes: Does the driver respond quickly to changes during a match? Does the driver respond with the proper solution in the wake of changes that can adversely affect his/her alliance's chance of winning a match? Are the responses executed in such a way that the robots on the driver's alliance are placed in as little danger as possible? Yea-- its important.

Next, I would test for the ability to follow instructions: Does the driver follow the instructions given by the coach? Is the driver able to, if not able to follow the exact directions given by a coach, reach an acceptable compromise? Somewhat important.

Finally, I would test for the ability to give instructions: Can the driver effectively communicate to his/her partner what s/he is trying to do? By that I mean, are step-by-step instructions given, or does the driver just put across the general idea behind his actions. The latter is the preferred method, in my opinion. Very important.

Skill does factor in, but if the driver is good at all of the above, then refined skill skill can come later with alot of practice. I think the same thing of knowing the rules.

Oh, one other thing: Be certain that your two drivers work well together. If they don't have "chemistry," then despite their skill, coordinating movements to make them fluid will be very difficult.