Quote:
Originally Posted by Qbranch
But seriously, I can say that this was an extremely stressful position to be in. You have absolutely zero free time at competitions, especially early in the season as you're either driving or making code changes or maybe having somebody yell at you to go eat because you haven't taken a break to eat all day  . |
We wind up yelling at everyone in the pits to go eat because they haven't taken a break all day. Many students get dehydrated because they get caught up in things going on. Even a mentor or two forgets to eat sometimes (doh!). It's not a fun feeling to be rushing through maintenance and competition only to feel faint because you haven't eaten in 8 hours.
Last year we saw huge benefits in letting the mechanical lead do the elevator/etc. This year, the lead programmer is the secondary driver since he knows the most about our radar display, and the primary driver was a key build student who understands how to drive our bot proficiently enough. I believe it is quintessential to success for the drivers to have mechanical and/or coding knowledge of the robot, further than just your typical xbox-style video game. This will allow them to get to know the physical limitations of the bot and figure out ways to push the robot to the limits.
The other option is to put your lead build, integration, or programming mentor out on the field with your students. So long as the student drivers aren't intimidated by an adult who has to speak up loudly in order to be heard over the music & commentator, there are huge benefits to doing this. YMMV though.