We've used both in the past. Most of the time, we consult our drivers and see what they would prefer. After all, they are the ones interfacing with the machine most frequently!
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Originally Posted by EricH
Tank drive (having one joystick control each side) is the most popular system in FIRST. It's simple, the driver practically doesn't have to think (well, he does, but it's more intuitive.) Having one control speed and the other turning--just use a steering wheel if you can find one that interfaces with the RC; or just use one joystick. The problem with this system is it's very hard to turn fast, unlike two sticks. If you must use an x and y system, use one stick, but two joysticks is preferred.
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We used a pretty unique system last year. We had a 3-wheel swerve drive on our machine, so we couldn't use the standard tank drive. We used a joystick for throttle and a steering wheel for directionality. It seems very complicated to figure out, but it's actually pretty intuitive. I ran the robot in some demonstrations where the students couldn't attend, and it was definitely different, but I would use that control system again. If you try to use a swerve drive with it, make sure you have a good programmer! We actually ran out of space in the RC to be able to do everything we wanted to last year because of the swerve-drive code.
As far as finding a steering wheel goes, I think we brought one in from someone's old collection and modified the connector. It worked just fine.
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