Drive Train Controls

[Blevenson]

Like most driving controls, the real concern lies with the driver. Like you, we added fancy drive controls over the summer, however, when the drivers started using it they realized that the "fanciness" was taking them out of the moment. But, this is also very subjective as it varied between our two drive teams. With a new driver I would recommend starting with a really basic control scheme, like tank drive, and then talk with the driver to modify it to fit what they want. We ended up stripping down cheesy drive, because the negative inertia was annoying the drivers, so it is now a fairly simple two stick arcade scheme: one joystick is heading, and the other is throttle.

If you are interested in experimenting over the summer, try adding sensors to help the driver, like correcting heading deviations when attempting to drive straight.

[ZamericaZ]

Our team has tried multiple different controls and in the end it comes down to driver preference, if you haven't already decided some new driver candidates I'd check out this article https://frcdesigns.com/2016/01/08/ke...vis-covington/

I would definitely recommend trying out different control systems and see which type your driver prefers, it's would also be a good chance to get some more programing experience. We have used tank (left joystick controls left, right controls right), arcade (one joystick controls the whole drive train), and a power throttle (one joystick controls direction, the other controls speed).

Our 2014 driver was amazing with tank and 2 of the Logitech extreme joysticks, our current driver prefers arcade since he got lots of practice with it last year, and we had a offseason robot between 2014-2015 with power throttle and that thing was so much fun to drive but it's not something anyone can pickup and do. Here's the thread about that offseason robot: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=131060

[thatprogrammer]

Here's an additional thing you may not have considered. Many teams use steering wheels and arcade drive in order to have very smooth, continuous turns and prevent the driver from "jerking" while changing direction and slowing down acceleration. This lack of stopping while changing direction means that you keep accelerating, which, depending on your gearing, could save you a vital second or 2 if you are doing a full field run!
My team hasn't ever tried this, but we are considering trying it out after talking to 1678 and 971 at world's who seemed to like it very much. Austin Schuh from 971 is probably the best guy to talk to about this if you'd like more information on how they do it.
More important than whatever drive system you use is that your driver gets PLENTY of time to practice. Allow your driver to use the same system again and again until they can smoothly do anything on the field without being confused or not doing what they want in a smooth manner. The enemy of an efficient driver is an inability to do what they desire easily.