Driver Skill

[Daniel_LaFleur]

The above posts are good for offense.

Here's my suggestions for playing defense:

1> Always make them go around you. Never give the offensive robot a straight path to the goal

2> Get into them (Offensive bots hate contact). Alway get into pushing matches with the offensive robots. Even if you cannot win the pushing match, your goal is to slow down their recycle time.

3> Match their aggressiveness with your own. Do not be afraid of high speed collisions. Force them to pay attention to your robot and not their goal.

4> It's their responsibility to pull back their extensions that are beyond their bumpers. Do not be afraid to hit the offensive bot at any time.


And for this years game:

5> there is only 1 game piece on their side. If they can only eject from 1 side, lock that side of their robot down. If they must extend an arm to fire, lock that arm inside their robot. Your goal is increase their recycle time, if you can make them miss, force them to chase the ball down (with you still defending) or be unable to fire from their 'optimal' position then do so.

[IronicDeadBird]

Start off by identifying what kind of drive system you are using, what the benefits and disadvantages are of it and then designing activities that reinforce good use of the benefits.
For example with tank drive one thing I have drivers do is practice moving turns while a tank drive can turn on a dime with proper control you can do gentle curves just fine. The most basic level driver starts by doing figure 8's in a circle of cones without knocking over any cones while we make the circle smaller. The most advanced drivers get moving turns incorporated into courses where we do things like block vision to simulate another robot obstructing your vision.
I am currently writing up some drive activities for my team and if you are interested in seeing some of them please contact me.

[Kevin Ray]

We have a dedicated driving mentor who happens to be a former team member who now works for our sponsor. He built a dedicated robot for driver training only--it's a beast! All students who were interested in driving had to try out. There was a driving test after a short familiarization period. This was a way to filter out those who "You NEVER want to drive behind on the highway!" The rest were given a longer period to practice and drive. We are down to at least 4 potential drivers who each have over 2 full hours of drive time on the robot. All through this drive time they are given challenges and routes to drive and are assessed by the mentor. He also creates a highly stressful environment during various testing times. This, we feel most accurately simulates what driving conditions will be like at regionals and St. Louis (positive thinking).
The most important trait can't be taught, however; thinking on your feet and being able to assess the game as it plays out. Coaching can only go so far. In '06 we had a driver who could win a match driving a potato--he was amazing, and yes, he drove it like he stole it. We've tried to teach others since him to react, respond and drive like he did but we realized, and most coaches I think will agree, that kind of driver doesn't come around every year. When you get one though he will make you able to get a win with any robot you give him.

[tomer]

Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird

Start off by identifying what kind of drive system you are using, what the benefits and disadvantages are of it and then designing activities that reinforce good use of the benefits.
For example with tank drive one thing I have drivers do is practice moving turns while a tank drive can turn on a dime with proper control you can do gentle curves just fine. The most basic level driver starts by doing figure 8's in a circle of cones without knocking over any cones while we make the circle smaller. The most advanced drivers get moving turns incorporated into courses where we do things like block vision to simulate another robot obstructing your vision.
I am currently writing up some drive activities for my team and if you are interested in seeing some of them please contact me.

I am very interested in seeing your drive activities if possible

[lark95]

One very important thing for drivers to be able to do is drive in any orientation relative to where they are standing. This needs to be done without even thinking about it in order to minimize the time it takes to do things.

[Lij2015]

1. You gotta let your driver pick their own driving method, if you're like me and were on programming that's easy to achieve. Its needs to suit what they want to do, and how they want to do it.

2. Speaking from experience, your driver HAS to be comfortable driving as fast as your robot can go both forwards and backwards. In most cases driving backwards is a bit weird for most people, but in 2014 at least when you're dodging people you couldn't expect to only be driving forward if you wanted to actually get around people.

3. You're drive train has to be agile and controllable, give a bad drive train to a new driver and its not going to end well.

[gigaboggie]

I am the drive coach for my team this year after being a driver for Team 3042 during aerial assist. As most people have mentioned previously, avoiding defense is a huge advantage. However, there is one set of skills that I haven't seen mentioned that I believe to be really important to look for and develop in drivers. This set of skills involves leadership, communication and critical thinking. It's good to be a good driver for your own team but in most cases your team will not succeed alone. In my personal opinion, the most important aspect of driving is the interaction with your alliance partners. Drivers need to develop a great sense of strategy because a good strategy can allow a mediocre robot to compete on a level with the elite robots. If I had to suggest one thing for any driver, it would be to understand strategy at a deeper level and communicate that between your alliance partners.