[Pat Fairbank]

As far as I know, most crab control systems that I have heard of involve the driver pushing a joystick in the direction he or she wants the robot to go. The controller then calculates which direction the wheels have to be pointed in, and once they are pointing in the right direction, the robot starts moving. There is also usually another joystick or something else for on-the-spot robot rotation.

I'm curious to know if there are any other interesting ways of controlling a crab drive. I would say that you're definately right in that complex programming is always a part of a crab drive control system.