Quote:
Originally Posted by Pretzel
While indicators may make debugging easier, I can count on one hand the number of times I looked at the smart dashboard during the last six competitions I drove for, including the Utah regional this last weekend (where I never looked at it). The only times I used it were to check in 2014 twice if we were in low gear or if two jaguars had browned out instead. I then found it much more efficient to just push my shifter button for high gear to test it.
The problem is that, for me and almost every driver I've talked to, you have to be focused in on the robot for the whole match. You need top be able to see if anything is going wrong that you need to fix, and the best way to watch for that is by looking at the robot rather than the smart dashboard.
If you do have to make an indicator, make it large and bright. Make it toggle between two colors, rather than showing words, so that the driver can see it from his/her peripheral vision. Then make a second version that can be used for debugging instead, and leave the big colorful indicators for the competition. Looking down and reading wastes previous seconds and takes your attention from the field, where it should be.
|
I have to agree that a driver must be 100% focused on the robot, and wont have the time to look at the computer screen. Bet there is one more way to have indicators and that is to have them on the robot. Last year we had a catching and shooting bot. To catch we lust ran the shooting wheels backwards. To aid the drivers, and human players that would be throwing into the bot, we aded led's 360 degrees around our bot. When they were both blue and red it could catch. We also had a laser for distance sensing. If we were in the right range to make the shot the led's turned off, when we were to far they were red and when we were to close they were blue.
It made it really easy on the me and the secondary driver to drive.