How do you select drivers?

[Brian Maher]

Our team is trying to figure out the best way to choose drivers. In the past, we have used a simple robot driving test on a course marked by traffic cones; we have found this test only reflects part of what makes for a good driver.

What does your team do?

[John Retkowski]

Driver tests and obstacle courses can be useful, but we find it best to conduct most of our driver training during off season. Having new drivers practice with the bot rigorously helps them not only get experience, but also helps in finding out what mechanisms, motors, wires, tubing, etc... may have worn out so that we can replace them before off season competitions. After all the practice, we can more accurately see how drivers perform in actual matches at off season events, as well as them getting to see what a real match is like with five other robots.

[Monochron]

We aim to chose our drive team basically using the guidelines set out in Karthik's recent talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...YAO4NTA#t=2522

I think the more common question though is what exactly is the process by which you select these students. As for that last year we had a conference between engineering / strategy mentors and our Elders Council. The Elders Council is a formalized group of 3 "top" students plus the team Captain who we consult for decisions that require expediency and may be tough calls.

The Elders Council acts, in some ways, as a voice for the team but is also intended to prevent long drawn out discussions when hard decisions need to be made. We make an emphasis that each student should approach the meetings with a mature attitude, understanding that we will need to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their team mates and, occasionally, themselves. So far it has worked fantastically.

It is much easier to say to a team of students who are used to running the team "Your Elders Council and mentors pick these students for the drive team" than to say "us mentors have picked these students for the drive team".

[TimTheGreat]

Our team usually has the either the lead programmer and lead mechanic, or the two most senior/experienced members. We do the former because they are the ones who will generally fix things during testing, so if they can fix a part and test it over and over, they get driving experience just by taking the robot to a practice field for a few minutes at a time and driving around.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Monochron

We aim to chose our drive team basically using the guidelines set out in Karthik's recent talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...YAO4NTA#t=2522

This is the way to do it.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Monochron

We aim to chose our drive team basically using the guidelines set out in Karthik's recent talk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...YAO4NTA#t=2522

The slides for this talk can be found in this post.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...50&postcount=9

[BriteBacon]

We try to have anybody on the drive team to have at least a year of scouting first. We also try to have anybody interested the chance to drive at on off-season event. We do this because it is a very different experience from driving in the shop and driving at an event. This will filter out students who can't take the pressure of being on the drive team. We also make sure they know the rules by giving out a rule test, the test covers the way the game works and most of the penalties that they could be faced with.

[artK]

Originally Posted by BriteBacon

We try to have anybody on the drive team to have at least a year of scouting first.

This is an interesting recommendation: Why do you believe it to be good? Is it to train the future drivers what good teams on the field do? Is it to give drivers a background in strategy?

[pyroslev]

Age old question, for which there is no one size fits all answer.
My wish list overall is four big things.

1. You want someone who knows how the robot was built/programmed. As in they helped build and repair it. If they know what the robot is truly made of, they can hopefully treat it with respect it deserves instead of abusing it like some drivers do. It'll also help in situations where damage happens. They can diagnose the issue, possibly, and ideally drive the robot smartly without more damage while being effective in a close match. And if they helped program the robot, then that will help in it's own way.
   
2. You want someone with a good handle on their emotions. You don't want a hot head who will accost people or an apathetic person who won't challenge an easy penalty. You do want some one who is passionate about what they're doing. Social skills with others fits into this category as well.
   
3. Rule knowledge is a must. Photographic memory isn't required but a working knowledge of the rules, how to play the game in it's current evolution and a little capacity to predict the next move move will make the entire team happy.
   
4. If they're already driving a vehicle, make sure they've got a good driving history there. (Silly sounding but actually can tell you volumes)

Beyond that, there are many more things you need to take into consideration. That's where your own judgement comes into play as it relates to your team. Even before the season starts, be on the look out for good students. Watch their progress so that when the season starts you can keep an eye on all the good candidates. Clear leaders for the drive team will become apparent as early as the day after kick off. By the time Week 3 is ending, your pool of candidates should be fairly narrowed down just by who's committed the most time. From there, you've got to make the decision that will work best for the team as a whole.

So bottom line: Don't be picking your drive team/drivers 2 minutes before the Driver's Meeting.

[HelloRobot]

Selections for drivers should be based on skill/experience with the current year's robot, work ethic (including participation throughout build season, probably present at least 75 or 80% of the build meetings), and teamwork skills - NOT seniority alone (though older members might have more experience. Still, there's more to a team member than his or her age.).

Last season, there was a practice game field set up at a local manufacturing center (the MDF in west Knoxville), and around week 5, they had a team scrimmage with 6 or 7 teams. It was pretty good for practice and scouting. If any other cities have the ability to do something like that, it would be good for drivers to practice.

To be a good driver, you and the robot have to play the game well. Also, human players might need a bit of practice outside of regionals. I think being able to play the game and maneuver the robot are extremely important. So is following the rules! Fouls can turn the tides in a match. (I think we've all seen that happen at some point) And of course, a great game strategy will make your alliance strong. I've heard, "the best defense is a good offense."

Disclaimer: As a rookie captain, I have not had to select drivers yet. BUT I, personally, have been in FRC for the last two seasons.

[Jacob Bendicksen]

We try to have our driver carry over from year to year, since we use more or less the same drive base each year (tank drive with some game-specific modifications). When there's an open position on drive team (often human player, sometimes co-pilot and drive coach), anyone who wants to be considered needs to fill their desired role at one (preferably two) of our offseason events. We just picked our drive coach yesterday, so our driver and drive coach for 2015 are set. Once build season starts, we'll see who's interested in filling the co-pilot and human player roles. The drive coach and driver will take the lead in choosing who will make it to drive team, since they'll be the people who need to work together.

And of course, all of them need to know the rules inside and out and work well with other teams.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by HelloRobot

Selections for drivers should be based on skill/experience with the current year's robot, work ethic (including participation throughout build season, probably present at least 75 or 80% of the build meetings), and teamwork skills - NOT seniority alone (though older members might have more experience. Still, there's more to a team member than his or her age.).

I would disagree with those first two criteria you have. Work ethic does very little to tell you if a person will be able to take the pressure and responsibility of being a driver. It may tell you how much effort a person will put in, but effort only goes so far.
Skill and experience on the robot from last season is useful, but both can be taught during build season if need be. Teaching these before build season is much preferable, but most students can practice on the sticks and become relatively skilled. I would caution about ruling students out who simply haven't happened to drive your previous robot a lot.

[styxracer97]

My only tip is to make sure that the drive team isn't afraid to be aggressive when they have to. I've seen many matches lost due to people playing very passively.

[Brandon Ha]

Originally Posted by styxracer97

My only tip is to make sure that the drive team isn't afraid to be aggressive when they have to. I've seen many matches lost due to people playing very passively.

You also want to have an coach who has a sense of field aswell.
I have seen numerous matches where a team wanted to get more points on the board instead of playing defense on the opposing team. A bigger score is never worth a loss.

[anthonyttu]

A very wise mentor once said

"I can teach a monkey to drive a robot I can't teach them to be a leader."