[Viper37]

Originally Posted by markulrich

1) How does your team decide who drives?
We held our first driver try out this year because our previous driver (myself) found myself in mandatory retirement due to the fact that I graduated.

We set up our test fields and previous years robots. We then test the drivers in a variety of situations. Fine control, peripheral vision, navigation, time management, etc..

We also test them under stress. We get a good crowd of students and kids age 6-18 to cheer yell and scream while the drivers are being tested. We also have a Former Marine Drill Sgt. who yells and screams all sorts of colorful things. Its a great way to measure someones breaking point.

2)How does your team decide who is the "coach"? Do you have a mentor or student?
Thats always been an issue for us. In years past the coach was whoever wanted to do it. We don't really have a procedure for coach selection. We usually use a student, but on occasion we have fielded a mentor.

3)Do you have one or two drivers? Why
Two. The task of navigating the robot around a busy and crowded field (IE Rack N Roll) is enough of a task in my opinion. Being a former driver myself, I know for a fact that is a big job. Our second driver is the arm/lift/shooter/operator. This works great for us because the workload is split in half. Also, while the second driver isn't doing anything, he/she can act as an auxiliary coach so to speak.

I hope that helps.