[Tungrus]

Start drive practice now! This is my 2 cent advice.

Whether you can build practice bot or not, if you have last year's robot, let your drive team start practicing now. If its a two member team, one to drive and one to manip, they can get comfortable communicating with each other. Focus on driving using shortest distance, turning and also offensive or defensive driving. If you have two drivable robots, its easier to to practice defensive driving. If you don't have a second working robot, put a tote on wheels and use as defensive robot. You can build a cheaper control systems, a simple RC system, if you need one. At this time its not about scoring, just practice drive and manip communication.

Once your drive base is ready for the new challenge, start driving and testing. Driving, coordination and communication comes with practice, so practice everyday, even if its a short time.