Picking Drivers?

[ERock(NJ)]

How do you pick your drivers? I know this is asked about 20 times every season but I forgot, lol, so umm how do you?

I was thinking that the driver should be the driver from last year but I don't know. I also thought that most team's drivers are from there building department.

[ngreen]

The team mentors vote to choose who go to the field...based on er....whatever they choose to base it on. I think some based it on skillz and others based it on time commited and gp. And seniority take some effect. It seemed to make a good balance of things and the mentor are usually the least bias you can get. The students would have to much trouble trying to choose in most cases.

[Yan Wang]

Straight out of the sheet posted on the whiteboard stating the requirement's for tonight's driver [and other position] tryouts... here's the excerpt for driver tryouts. Pretty much the same as last year:

Every team member is eligible to tryout for all positions that they have not had for a total of two years. The positions are as follows:

1. Driver (drives the robot)
2. Controller (operates the switches)
3. Coach (advises the driver and controller and helps them keep an eye on what is happening on the field)
4. Human Player (throws the balls in the goals)

********All positions are required to take a written test covering the rules (This will be timed)********
STUDY www.usfirst.org/robotics/doc_updt.htm

Some things the judges (college students, engineers, teachers, other adults) will be evaluating include (most apply to the driver, but some apply to all)
- overall skill
- ability to complete the tasks
- potential
- consistency
- speed
- seniority

Driver

· Perform the following tasks on the mock playing field set up in H Courtyard:
1. Herd 6 balls
2. Move goal from initial starting position to corral
3. Drive up both 6 inch platforms
4. Hang from the Bar

You will be given approximately 2 or 3 minutes to do as many of these tasks as possible (We will give a more exact number after we try a few practice rounds) The proposal is to have Yan control for all drivers for fairness (he is not eligible for the controller position this year)

· A separate timed section will require navigation of an obstacle course on the field

[Ryan M.]

Our team has tryouts. After the robot is pretty much complete, we have a time where each person who wants to can drive the robot around to do a task. Some of the mentors watch and the person with the most skill gets to be the primary driver.

[Rob Colatutto]

On 229 we have a driver training handbook written by John and revised last year by Chris. I didn't feel the need to really revise any of it this year so it has remained unchanged so far.
http://www.team229.org/resources/single/110
Such as with all the documentation on our website, feel free to use this handbook or modify it to fit your needs as long as due credit is given to the makers.

Beginning the year who ever is elected strategy head starts training a group of any high schoolers who want to drive, or operate, and has them drive around old robots just to get the hang of driving a robot around. Then when the real season comes around we do some driver training with the fall drivebase on the new field with a practice mechanism while the new drive base is being made and then they continue to drive the new drive base up untill shipping. About the beginning of week 5 I made the decission on who the driver, operator, human player, and all purpose backup is. Now it is up to our field coach, John, to finish thier training with more specific match strategies. The driver selection system works out very well and you end up with competition drivers who have a lot of practice with the robot before the first regional.

[nuggetsyl]

It is not easy to be able to pick a driver for your team. Either someone has the goods or they do not. A driver will make or break how well your robot does. For example i do not think anyone else could have driven our 2003 robot better then steve. If it was not for his quick thinking and great handleing of the robot we would not have done as well as we did. This year was hard on us becasue we had to pick a new driver and train him not to over drive the robot. I strongly feel if you want someone that can handle the pressure of driving your driver needs to be picked the year before and have him or her drive all the time (mini comps) and durning demos to get used to driving at weird angles. The driver should know ever peice of the robot (does not mean he is the one fixing it) and hows it handles, kinda like your own personal car (ex: ac does not work you need a screw driver to open you car door) DO NOT BE PC CORRECT 1 driver . I know everone wants to drive but it does not work. Just look at football when there is a qb conterversy it divids a team and nothing gets done.

[Stephen Kowski]

don't get too wrapped up in seniority....yeah it is a compliment and all, but if you make your drivers only seniors then the next year you have no driving experience what-so-ever....

[Rob Colatutto]

Originally Posted by Stephen Kowski

don't get too wrapped up in seniority....yeah it is a compliment and all, but if you make your drivers only seniors then the next year you have no driving experience what-so-ever....

That is the way my high school team did driver picking. I tend to agree with your concern somewhat. The argument can be looked at from both sides with the issue of senior driving privledge. It is more fair if your teams goal is to let the job go around more but still be competitive year to year because you have one driver but never switch in the same season. You also have off-seasons to train new drivers the next year. The way we chose to run things in 03 on team 263 was but the two potential drivers each driving a robot in Bash 02' and see how they do and to let them get some competition experiance. The method ended up working out but it only works if you have talented seniors, which you don't always end up with.

In favor of a tenured younger driver, you only have to completely retrain a new one every few years, and then thier 2nd or 3rd driving season has potential to be much better than the previous. Up here on 229 we do not pick drivers based on seniority, the decission is purely on skill. Our 4 drive team members are 3 juniors and 1 freshman. 2 of the juniors had been on the drive team in 2003 as well. In all, I would suggest to pick talent over seniority, just as with your robot you would pick function over form when designing. Each team needs to make the decission for themselves on how they want to select thier drivers.

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Rob Colatutto

Up here on 229 we do not pick drivers based on seniority, the decission is purely on skill. Our 4 drive team members are 3 juniors and 1 freshman. 2 of the juniors had been on the drive team in 2003 as well. In all, I would suggest to pick talent over seniority, just as with your robot you would pick function over form when designing. Each team needs to make the decission for themselves on how they want to select thier drivers.

To elaborate on what Rob said...
The actual decision isn't completely based on driver (robot use) skill. There are many other things that need to be taken into account, such as maturity, calmness under pressure, responsibility (and many more). The team drivers are often the most visible representatives of the team, and should be chosen as such. Actual robot skill is almost secondary, and can be learned... maturity on the other hand, is more difficult learn.

We take great pride in fielding excellent drive teams, I am excited to see how this year's group (GREAT bunch of kids) holds up.

Hopefully by nationals this rookie group will be running like a swiss watch.

JVN

[Collin Fultz]

Originally Posted by JVN

Hopefully by nationals this rookie group will be running like a swiss watch.

JVN

this is what i agree with most. above all...your driver, HP, robot contoller and coach need to be able to communicate with each other. a lot of times the HP can get a better view of the field than the driver. also, you need people who can take and give instruction to other teams.

[Chris Fultz]

I agree with Collin and John and a few others.

Maturity is the key. Matches don't always go as expected, partners don't always do what you agreed on or what they said they would do, etc.
You need someone who can work under the pressure, stay under control and keep things moving. The two minute match is not for the timid.

Our drivers are usually also our captains, but that is not an absolute. The reason it that the captains are usually most experienced overall, learn and know the strategy, and can communicate well with other teams. The driver is the leader out there - captains are usually good leaders.

We use the out of season events for training / selecting new drivers.

I think one secret for solid performance is a consistent team on the field.
The four need to learn to communicate and work together, know what to expect of each other, and learn to trust each others judgement and ability. Rotating several peple in and out adds to confusion and leads to mistakes.\

[Pierson]

Our team has a panel of 3-4 people, including 1-2 mentors, a graphics team member, and a leadership member.

They observe everyone who wants to drive and operate. Their decision is based upon skills and rules knowledge. The human player is choosen based on shooting consistency.

Last year we had a Freshman as our primary driver (granted he was short, so it was hard to see across the field, but he did a great job!)

[Bcahn836]

We setup a driving course and use the past years robot. Each person that signs up or gets voulenteered will run the course and be judged in several areas like; controll, mistakes, damage, following directions from a mentor and fellow driver, and completion of each objective, oh yeah and in the fastest time with the fewest mistakes.
This years robot needed two drivers, one for the robot and one for the arm. so the best driver from the time trials drove the robot and I drove the arms since I played the biggest role in designing the arms, and communicated well with the driver.
We also scout talent at the off season events so we let some mature freshmen have thier take with a skilled driver by thier side.(just in case)
We also try to find time for other vetrens who would like to drive but didn't get a chance to.
All of these things go into the selection of our drivers.
By the way it is also good to have a back up team ready to step in in case another VCU happens. Or the driver is MIA.

[greencactus3]

us... well.....we only had maybe 4 guys who worked on the robot period.
and then 1 didnt want to do anything at the field, 1 wanted to shoot baskets...and he was amazing at it.. and then the remaining 2 we just agreed. and we did pretty horrible.... well... we had 0 practice time. because we just got it driving maybe the day before shipping, and then we had to lose weight

[Beth Sweet]

On our team we have performance tryouts (show how well you can actually perform the task), and a written test. Those who score the best on those two things (plus the mentors know that they're good kids who'll actually listen in the heat of the game) become the year's drive team.