Five Person Drive team in 2017

[fargus111111111]

Crazy(ish) idea, someone already mentioned the extra button being for someone to control some sort of train minibot, if this is the case the train could be controlled directly through the rails and additional functions on board the train could also be controlled if they used a dcc (digital command control) system. Teams could build their own "train" with a specific on-board controller which is programmed to respond to their team number and the additional team member could operate that from a dedicated station, not necessarily directly behind the glass, similar placement to the kinect stations. Many teams probably wouldn't build one of these trains and therefore I think it would almost have to be something like 1 train per alliance and the whole alliance gets the points it scores with regard to ranking. I have not really thought through the scoring and all that and the logistics (events need lots of track cleaner on hand) but I like trains and this is just one way that I think would be really cool to include them into an FRC game. This gives a truly teleoperated minibot without taking up more bandwidth, and dcc systems are incredibly reliable in connecting, as long as the tracks are clean. Also, the trains could pull their power from the rails so they would not need additional batteries on board and at the end of the match the fms could simply cut power to them. As far as the extra people, if only one of these is used per alliance, possibly each team gets an additional button, but to use it they must have their train in hand as they enter the field.

Just another thoroughly crazy idea, but hey, it sounds fun, at least on paper.