Training New Drivers

[bigbeezy]

Like others, we give a rules test. But this year we extended it to the entire team. We wanted to make sure that the entire team knew the rules inside and out. We then had a secondary Driver Rules test which was more specific toward the drive team. Very very few multiple choice answers were given, this way you could tell who was actually guessing or just mixed up a number. The Driver Test portion also include situational questions so that the mentors can get a better feel of how the student thinks.

There were a couple problems with this. 1) Grading 2 multipage tests that weren't multiple choice was extremely time consuming (esp. during build season) and 2) There was no time limit for the situational questions. A student could come up with a good strategy but you have no way of know if that took 5 seconds or 5 minutes to formulate. I have heard of teams doing a sort of interview where situations are presented and they explain what they would do or draws on a white board. I think we are going to give this a try next year.

As far as try-outs with driving. We allow any student to try driving during off season events. We also hold a few fun driver practices in the shop during the fall where we've set up obstacle courses and run time trials. I plan to improve these so they are more structured for this summer/fall. In my mind, ideally we would select a drive team following our week 0 event. However depending on the state of the robot that's sometimes easier said than done.

Some things I look for in a drive team:
Must know rules
Communication
Smooth control (Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast)
Knowledgeable in how the robot works (don't expect to know every nut and bolt but should know what does what)
Communication
No Tunnel Vision (should be able to see the field, not just the robot)
Short Memory (needs to learn from mistakes and move on)
Communication

A couple students asked me last year if particular drive sessions were official "try-outs" or just "practice," the way I see it anytime you are behind the glass you are being graded. But that doesn't mean you can't mess around and have fun...