How is your team picking its drive team?

[Zack.McDonald]

How is your team picking it's drive team? Specifically the drivers. Is it some kind of obstacle course? Written Test? Seniority? Please include why you chose whatever you did.

[Hallry]

Tryouts. Whoever's the best of whoever wants it. Doesn't matter if they're a senior, freshman, guy, or girl. If they're better than everyone else, they're it. We normally have the candidates do a different number of procedures with a previous year's robot while being silently judged by team leaders, as well as playing against a drive team alumnus with another robot if possible.

And, knowing how to quickly fix the robot in tight situations always helps, too.

EDIT: Justin Montois makes an excellent point in a few posts down. The drive team must be able to work together well and understand each other. Starting in 2010, we had two juniors who were twins as driver and operator. I still swear that they had twin-telepathy, because all four regionals they played in during 2010 and 2011 they won, including being #1 seed in two and in one going completely undefeated; they were also rank #4 and finalists on Curie in 2010. Starting in 2012, we had new juniors as driver, operator, and drive coach, who again could almost finish each other's sentences, and went on two win two districts (and one finalist) and compete in IRI in 2012 and 2013.

[magnets]

The drive team MUST
Be core members of the team
Be nice, good GP people
Spend tons of time at robots
Know the robot, mechanical, software, things that are likely to break...etc
Know the rules

When it's time for driver practice, the drive team is usually fairly obvious on a smaller team.

[Zack.McDonald]

Yes, Thank you. My team is currently undergoing tryouts and I just wanted some opinions on how other teams handled the competition.

[Aetas]

We tend to pick by driving skills, reliability, and other general knowledge that one may have in regard to the robot. We may have someone that is an awesome driver, for example, but not be able to show up frequently, so we have alternates as well, as a just in case. Attending practice is usually better than not, so reliability is key in addition to those driving skills. Usually, our entire drive team (1st, 2nd drivers and coach) are in different groups- like one may be involved with programming, another with actual building, another with other things.

[ToddF]

This fall we built a practice field at the Virginia Air and Space center. We had drive team practice (open to the public) every Saturday. We let everyone know that all students were welcome to come practice driving our last year's robot. The mentor/student leadership selected a primary and secondary drive team from among those students who we felt earned their spots through a combination of demonstrated skill and commitment. It happens that those people on the drive team are also among the most involved when it comes to building the robot (no surprise there). If students develop problems with grades or attendance during build season, they lose their spots and people are promoted into them from below. Hasn't been a problem so far.

Having people selected ahead of build season allows for real input from the driver and operator into the controls and preferred control behaviors of the robot. The drive team can also work together as a team to develop an effective communications vocabulary for in-match communication. We are lucky to have a mentor on the team this year who has worked with tank crews, who use this type of communication between tank commander, driver, and gunner. He says that if tankers can go from detecting a target to hitting it in two or three seconds, there is no reason a robotics team can't use the same techniques to be just as effective. It's gonna be a good year...

[AJCaliciuri]

First of all, we compile a list of candidates based attendance for each regional we attend. This year we'll be attending 3 regionals, so 3 different drive teams.

We then take that list and review each one on the following:

• Driver Skill
• Attendance during Build Season
• Knowledge of the Game
• Ability to take Direction
• Ability to take Criticism
• GP
• (In some Cases) Seniority
• Behaviour/Attitude

In general, I'd say we look for students who can be reliable and responsible rather than who is the best driver/field coach

(Forgot to mention, 1305 always has a student as a Field Coach)

When it comes to human player, the above also apply, on top of any physical limitations of the job (Throwing Fribees over a high wall).

We then determine the student who best meets the criteria, who in turn becomes Field Coach.

Then, in descending order of criteria best met, Students are selected for 1st Driver, 2nd Driver, Human Player, 1st Backup, and 2nd Backup.

The decision making process is broken down into 3 stages:

A) Mentors, Captain, Robot Manager, and Business Manager compile the list and initial discussion begins
B) Mentors and Captain discuss the matter further
C) Mentors make the final decision

That's pretty much it.

[Zack.McDonald]

Thank you for all the input. How are you all measuring "Driver Skill"? We have mecanum drive this year and have set up an obstacle course to test potential drivers. This includes moving straight, sideways, diagonal, and weaving through blocks. Any suggestions on how to change this setup (Some don't feel that it represents real field scenarios accurately)?

[Phyrxes]

In addition to a static element drills, assuming you have another drive base available, learn how to do those drills when someone is actively trying to prevent you from doing them. This year ball acquisition is going to be one of those characteristics that causes people to be on (or not be) on pick lists. The ability to "quickly" track down and intake a ball in traffic is a must.

I was talking my student coach this morning, we are both car people so we were discussing how static robot control drills are like driving autocross. You have a known course and you have a known vehicle and you drive it again and again to lower your lap time. You learn how far you can push that vehicle (robot) to get the most of what you have. While we can change the course as much as we want evening making a very technical and challenging course that will push our bot, driver, and software towards their limit, that only represents the limit of those three things operating in isolation not in a match.

Anthony had a good list of traits the only thing we don't consider on that list is Seniority. If the freshman out drives the seniors, sorry seniors he/she gets the sticks.

[Caleb Sykes]

It would be interesting to see how many teams weight seniority in their decisions for drivers. I know some teams give preference to seniors when selecting drive teams, and many teams don't weight seniority at all. Do any teams use some sort of "reverse seniority thing" i.e. the younger drivers get precedence so they have more years of experience? I think that I am going to make a poll.

EDIT: I have made a poll for this topic: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hreadid=125267

[Phyrxes]

I am interested to see how that poll turns out as I wonder how many teams are in one of these two groups.

1. The four year driver, find the freshman with the most promise and potentially spend four years working with a cohesive unit.

2. Find the best combination for the year and make this decision every year.

[pfreivald]

Tryouts under as much pressure as we can manage.

[Justin Montois]

There's a great exchange between Herb Brooks and Craig Patrick in 'Miracle'. Herb says "I'm not looking for the best players, I'm looking for the right ones"

This is basically my philosophy when trying to put together a drive team. Sure, driving ability, calmness under pressure are important, but I would rather have a group that works well together, enjoys each others company and have great chemistry over a drive team that's more "Technically Proficient"

[bEdhEd]

My team has this structure:

The drive team consists of two sub-teams: Team A and Team B. Team A is made up of the team members who are seen as skilled enough to be the primary operators. Team B is made up of team members of comparable skill, who are summoned when a Team A member is not available for an entire competition or a single match. All members of the drive team must be aware of and show GP when interacting with field personnel and other teams, opposing or allied.

Drive team positions are determined in the fall prior to kickoff, based on the physical evaluation of the team members' performance and cohesiveness. It is crucial that the members of the drive team can communicate well and bond, so they can perform their best on the field harmoniously.

Coach:
Must have prior field experience (Minimum 10 live matches)
-Can be Mentor or Student (if mentor is new, he/she must attend as coach during an off season event prior to regionals/districts/championships)
-Can act as a leader not only for our own team, but for alliance members as well
-Is willing to constantly consult the scouting director on match predictions and strategy suggestions
-Is able to adequately describe strategies to other teams through the use of strategy mats/boards

Driver:
Must have prior field experience (Minimum 5 live matches)
-Is able to control the drive system and other auxiliary systems and can maneuver/orient the robot to any direction/part of the field to fulfill strategic goals
-Is willing to work with the Coach to develop strategies
-Must be able to effectively communicate directions to the Co-Driver when needed, and can follow the directions given by the Co-Driver

Co-Driver
Must have prior field experience (Minimum 5 live matches)
-Is able to control the main scoring mechanism and other auxiliary systems and can use the scoring mechanism to increase point yield.
-Is willing to work with the Coach to develop strategies
-Must be able to effectively communicate directions to the Driver when needed, and can follow the directions given by the Driver.

Human Player
Prior field experience not required (Recommended 5 live matches)
-Is able to perform all necessary tasks as human player
-Is willing to work with the Coach to develop match strategies
-Must be able to effectively communicate directions verbally or symbolically (body language, hand gestures) to the rest of the drive team during a match, and must be able to interpret and execute verbal or symbolic directions given by the rest of the drive team.

Human player is the starting position for someone who wants to start on Team A. We try to have only experienced drive team members who have had prior live match experience operate the robot or direct the alliance members to execute a strategy.
We will make exceptions for team members who do exceedingly well, and have potential to be a Driver/Co-Driver. We do not make exceptions for Coach. We have found that only field experience can give a prospective Coach the skills to run a drive team, and to keep an alliance focused.

Drive Team B is generally where less experienced, but still very skilled drivers are assigned. For example, if someone wants to be a driver, but has no field experience, they can try out to be a driver , but will be assigned to Team B if there is a more experienced driver for Team A. The experience requirements are generally more strict for Team A than B. Newer drive team members also get their start from being in Team B, so they can get started in the position they want, not just Human Player.

[bookworm0422]

Team 313 as being under "new management" this year is employing the following as it's choosing of a drive team.

1. Written Test of the rules consisting of no less than 100 questions (with some extra credit thrown in there). Requiring a 100% to even be considered for Drive Team.

2. Interview which is conducted by the Team Sponsor (which is our Head Drive Team Coach) and myself (the assistant Drive Team Coach)

3. From there prospective candidates are chosen and will undergo a series of test with this years robot including but not limited to an obstacle course, game specific situations we believe will happen this year and timed trials.

4. The Final Drive Team will be selected by the Head Drive Team Coach with input from myself.

As you can tell our selection process is extensive but is necessary considering what these kids have to deal with out on the field and we also use 2 (Adult) drive team coaches so each of us can see the field and possibly pick up something different the other one didn't on the field.

Hopefully this helps you formulate your own way to chose your drive team and good luck out there.