Quote:
Originally Posted by AsianSensation
finally, what does your drive team do? Ours seems to do this: Driver 1: Drives robot, Human Player: Human player stuff, Captain and Driver 2: watch match from control station.
|
The Coach and the second Driver should not be there just to watch from behind the glass. If they are, you can send out less than a full drive team and still be effective.
The Coach should be directing the drivers to do stuff. "Go play defense! Shoot! Drop the bridge!" The Coach should also be the one coordinating strategy changes with partners, and keeping half an eye on the clock.
The second Driver, if not being used to drive part of the robot, should be either helping the Coach or (if allowed) helping the Human Player. However, for most robots, there is just too much complexity for one person to control the whole thing. That's where the second Driver (or as most teams call them, the Operator) comes in. One Driver handles the base of the robot, along with such functions as are necessary to keep it driving around, say a bridge manipulator. The second Driver handles anything NOT the drive base of the robot--shooter, turret, collectors, possibly bridge manipulators and stingers, arms, elevators, the list goes on.
If picking the drive team, I would say to pick a TEAM, not individual drivers, human players, coaches. Give me the #1 best team, and take the #1 driver, #1 operator, #1 human player, and #1 coach, and I'd be willing to bet that you'd be losing a lot more matches. Why? If the #1 individuals can't work together, they're going to have a rough time. If my team works together well, whether or not they're the best individually, the robot in motion is a thing of beauty. (If the best drive team happens to have the best individuals on it, so much the better!)