Drive Team Decisions

[Chris is me]

At this point, you're at best a week from your event? Pick the guy with experience, and then pick mature, level headed people that can work with the experienced guy under pressure. Don't pick anyone who doesn't know the rules. Work on this aspect of your team for next year.

[Caleb Sykes]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

At this point, you're at best a week from your event? Pick the guy with experience, and then pick mature, level headed people that can work with the experienced guy under pressure. Don't pick anyone who doesn't know the rules. Work on this aspect of your team for next year.

This.

[Gweiss96]

Next time, build 2 robots. Bag one, practice with the other. See who are the best drivers by practicing with the practice bot. For now just practice with previous year robots and see who is the best/most comfortable.

[SousVide]

This is definitely discussed a lot over the seasons. See below thread for an example:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=125252

We don't necessarily pick our drivers for the best driving skills. Our drivers must know the rules of the game well - backwards and forwards. They must be able to communicate with the other drive team members *and* be able to follow the drive coach's instructions without discussion or argument (talk about what happened after the match, not during). They must also be GP at all times - we consider them to be our team's ambassadors... A lot of these skills are more character qualities - they can be learned and practiced. However, we feel that, robot driving can improve during the season with some practice... The other selection criteria are more improvements over years.

[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.

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by 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.

They can touch game pieces in self defense.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by 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.

Right there.

You see, the only thing the refs (who are enforcing that rule set) have to tell the coach from the rest of the drive team is that nice yellow dot on the coach's badge. Doesn't matter if they're a student or an adult, the refs will call a foul if they see a yellow dot badge on the person driving or handling totes or handling litter.

[GeeTwo]

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?

Fundraising. In addition to some collections at local grocery stores, we sold tool kits, have done two piggybackr campaigns (similar to kickstarter but with an infrastructure to allow tracking which student brings in funds while obeying child safety laws), several local businesses, and a few big-ticket sponsors. The piggybackr type campaigns should be for a specific purpose - our first was to raise money for a duplicate 2015 control system, the second to raise money for our trip to St. Louis. We also have a number of steady contributors (for example, I buy parts online and from local stores occasionally, and usually only turn in the receipts for BoM purposes). We have found that it usually does not make sense to make two parts originally, but to go through a bit of prototype-and-tweak phase before making the second copy; both faster to develop, and less expensive. It also helps that we intentionally go for relatively simple designs - I believe our BoM came in about $2500, so we didn't spend much more than if we'd made one $4000 robot. The key is to make fundraising nearly as important as building or programming skills as far as making the team and lettering, then get the kids' competitive spirit aroused with fundraising. You won't get it from everyone, but hopefully enough to have enough money to fund two robots.

It also helps that we only do one regional per year, and that's about an hour drive from the school. But, when we earned a trip to St. Louis, we realized we'd need about $20,000 to get 25 students and 8 mentors and our trailer (purchased with a grant from Ingersoll Rand Foundation) there. Our $5k entry fee came from the schoool board. In the last 10 days, we've raised $10k of the other $15k, nearly half through individual contributions at piggybackr. We've also made a bunch of contacts with businesses that can't help us in the next few weeks, but are almost certain to sponsor us next year.