Drive Team Decisions

[Canop3n3r]

Our team is having a hard time with making up its mind on who is going to be our drive team and we dont know how to settle it either. We only have one team member who has experience on the drive team. We do not have a robot to practice on until we get to competition and we fear that is way too late to decide our drive team. How does your team usually decide decisions like this?

[donnie99]

Our team usually has the same problem with not having a practice bot and if we need a new drive team, we usually have who we believe to be the best drive during practice matches and/or on the practice field at events.

If you're team absolutely needs to decide a drive team before the competition, I would personally make sure the drivers understand how your team wants to play the game and is able to work with other teams on your alliance, both on the field and pre-match strategy. As a driver for 3 years, and a coach for part of this year, teams that work well together can pull off amazing feats, even if the drivers aren't necessarily the best out there.

I hope you do well with whoever you have drive!

[Sperkowsky]

see who knows the rules the best. seems fair.

[MaGiC_PiKaChU]

1- I suggest you find people who know well the robot (and the code), so if something goes wrong, they will know how to deal with it.

2-you need someone who knows how to work with the driver station (connection issues, dashboard, joysticks)

3- you need you drivers to play well under pressure. It's not because they are good in practice that it will be the same on a real field.

4- you need to trust your drive team; you give them absolute control over the outcome of your season

5- your drivers MUST have read the rules AT LEAST 100 times

[Wetzel]

Must have someone fluent in the code, someone fluent in mechanical repairs, someone that is competent at driving. All must know the rules.

[SeanFitz]

We had this same problem last year. What we did is we rotated the drive team with the top candidates (gamers tend to be the better drivers) through our first few matches. We reached a decision at the end of day one of qualifications by which team preformed best, and stuck with that team for the rest of the year.

[KosmicKhaos]

check this power point out by Karthik a mentor from 1114. He does a lot with strategy and building a team. Page 25 is when he starts talking about Drive Team and such. http://www.simbotics.org/files/pdf/runteam.pdf

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Wetzel

Must have someone fluent in the code, someone fluent in mechanical repairs, someone that is competent at driving. All must know the rules.

The drive coach (which has been a student on our team since a few matches into our rookie year) must be a tough negotiator, who can assert the team's strengths but is capable of recognizing a good compromise.

The human player must be good at whatever the HP does that year (this year, it may be either tote feeding or littering, depending on your robot design).

All of them must be able to handle the pressure and put a good face forward for the team.

I also agree with the post about making two robots next year. Last year, we had a prototype (Woody, named after his structural elements) and competition 'bot (Buzz, an aluminum-chassis 'bot named after Andy's other favorite toy). Practicing with Woody was a lot better than not practicing at all, but this year we built two (nearly) identical robots and bagged the incrementally better one. If it hadn't been for the hours and hours of driver practice between bag and regional, we'd never have figured out that we could pick up and carry and stack two totes at a time on the same level (totally serendipitous) or how to roll totes over (we had flipping as a thing we wanted to do, but the way that works is not at all what we planned). Without those abilities, we would not have been picked up to be part of a championship alliance.

[Ozuru]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

The drive coach (which has been a student on our team since a few matches into our rookie year) must be a tough negotiator, who can assert the team's strengths but is capable of recognizing a good compromise.

The human player must be good at whatever the HP does that year (this year, it may be either tote feeding or littering, depending on your robot design).

All of them must be able to handle the pressure and put a good face forward for the team.

I also agree with the post about making two robots next year. Last year, we had a prototype (Woody, named after his structural elements) and competition 'bot (Buzz, an aluminum-chassis 'bot named after Andy's other favorite toy). Practicing with Woody was a lot better than not practicing at all, but this year we built two (nearly) identical robots and bagged the incrementally better one. If it hadn't been for the hours and hours of driver practice between bag and regional, we'd never have figured out that we could pick up and carry and stack two totes at a time on the same level (totally serendipitous) or how to roll totes over (we had flipping as a thing we wanted to do, but the way that works is not at all what we planned). Without those abilities, we would not have been picked up to be part of a championship alliance.

Two robots is substantially better but almost impossible for teams with a budget. How do you handle the costs of the season with the costs of doubling your parts?

[SJaladi]

Originally Posted by Ozuru

Two robots is substantially better but almost impossible for teams with a budget. How do you handle the costs of the season with the costs of doubling your parts?

This was the first year we successfully built a proper identical practice robot. The biggest things we did to manage the budget were to buy everything in doubles so as to save shipping in the future and of course LOTS of fundraising. We set a goal for ourselves in the off-season of what it would take to do everything we want to this season and then the kids worked hard to fundraise.

[Lij2015]

I don't want to downplay the role of an operator but you can pick anyone you trust for the secondary driver and with training it'll turn out just fine.

Unless you need the tote chute for your robot, pick a tall person with a good arm for your hp.

Driver, pick based on half skill/intuition and half maturity.

Coach, pick someone who can lead or you trust. The strategy part can be researched.

[hunterteam3476]

What we do on Code Orange is tell our students at the starting of season if you want to be on the drive team you must be coming during build season at least 80% of the time to even qualify. This is a good way so you don't have parents complaining about why their kid isn't on drive team, you give them a fair chance. Once we know who is qualified then we have tryouts. We asked the students if they will be able to commit to do drive practice every day. We also look at there attitude and how they acted, your drive team meets a lot of teams you don't want to know your team didn't get picked because they are rude. And of course see how there driving skills are and how they are under pressure.

Good Luck!

[angelah]

Originally Posted by SJaladi

This was the first year we successfully built a proper identical practice robot. The biggest things we did to manage the budget were to buy everything in doubles so as to save shipping in the future and of course LOTS of fundraising. We set a goal for ourselves in the off-season of what it would take to do everything we want to this season and then the kids worked hard to fundraise.

This was our first year building one, too. We are not a team with a large budget, either. We just made it a highest priority this year. We asked materials sponsors for more, we cut other things, and we picked off old robots. We share the most expensive control components between the two. It has made all the difference in the way we place at competitions.

[pujeethmeruva]

If the drive coach is a student, what all can they do in terms of handling game pieces and the controls

[DarkRune]

Regardless of the coach being a student or adult, the coach is never allowed to touch the controls or game pieces once the match has started.