[debbiemusselman]

We did things a little differently this year than we did last year since we "finished" building sooner than we have in the past. Last year we didn't really have anyone that was interested in being on drive team so I was kind of forced onto the drive team because our coach thought I would be able to deal with the pressure and also be able to go out there and do what needs to be done as the operator and the same can be said for our driver. Throughout the entire season, we did not have a set human player but switched back and forth between a few people at each competition that we went to.

This year was a lot different. We actually had a working drive train and semi-working mechanisms by ~week 4 or 5 so we had some time to actually let people drive the robot around. We had everyone that wanted to be a part of the drive team write their name on a list of what position they want to be on the drive team and then we went through all of the different permutations of everyone to see who worked well together and who was able to work through the theoretical pressures of competitions. They would run through 2 minute cycles and the final score would be recorded along with how well they communicated with each other. After a round or two of running through the different permutations, the list was narrowed down to 2 people for both driver and operator.

Our mentors then sat down and looked over the data and talked about who worked well together and who didn’t. We then had to wait until our next meeting to find out what was going to happen next. As it turned out, the mentors decided who our drive team was going to be and made the other two the back-up drive team. They made sure that each of us understood why the drive team that was picked was picked and made sure that everyone was okay with the final decision.