Second driver?

[jamie_1930]

We were just reviewing this today and I, as the drive coach, told the programmers were going to have our driver controlling the movement of the robot and the roller. All other functions go to our secondary driver, including our kickers pressure, firing, reset, and camera lock on features, as well as all end game specific operations. In almost everygame you don't always need a second driver, but by incorporating the other driver as much as you can you can help spread out the work load, so that the driver has the ability to focus on other features of the gameplay. Although the good things with having little for the secondary driver to do is that you can essentially add another drive coach to the field, but this one can touch the controls.

[sportzkrazzy]

Plus it gives an extra student a position of responsibility which is important and they also get to if something goes wrong in with the bot. Its also always good to have an extra pair of eyes.

[RoBoTiCxLiNk]

Quite possibly, this second driver could be the main driver's relief. Being right there you learn all the tricks of the game and while being driver isn't the most stressless job in the world, it might also be good to have a relief driver who won't fail miserably.

[apalrd]

Originally Posted by jamie_1930

...In almost everygame you don't always need a second driver....

You almost always need a second driver. Looking back at past control panels as early as 2001, there would be no way for there to be a single driver. Think of 2005 or 2007. How could someone driving the robot with two joysticks possibly have the ability to call up macro positions or sequences? It is one thing to make the driver handle the suck roller, but quite another to have them handle the whole robot. The only exceptions I see are... none, for our robots.

As for the topic of this thread, the Killer Bees generally have the driver drive and the operator handle everything else. The driver has two joysticks for drive, and buttons for gear shifting and sometimes chassis inversion. The operator always has a custom control box and sometimes a joystick, handling everything else. The best way to make the drivers happy is to make their job easy using automation. That way anyone can drive the robot with little practice, and the practice the comp team gets allows them to get really good at driving.

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by apalrd

As for the topic of this thread, the Killer Bees generally have the driver drive and the operator handle everything else. The driver has two joysticks for drive, and buttons for gear shifting and sometimes chassis inversion. The operator always has a custom control box and sometimes a joystick, handling everything else. The best way to make the drivers happy is to make their job easy using automation. That way anyone can drive the robot with little practice, and the practice the comp team gets allows them to get really good at driving.

In a nutshell, that's what we do too. The driver concentrates on moving the robot around, and the operator takes care of whatever else the robot does. In 2008, the operator controlled the arm and the elevator, and in 2009 they controlled everything regarding ball intake, conveyor movement, and shooting. It's up to the coach to make sure that both operators are on the same wavelength and that they work as a team.

[Chris is me]

I can't see many robots in FIRST history that would even work as effectively with a single driver. A few power dumpers in 2009, corner dumpers with constant intakes in 2006, pure rampbots in 07...

A second driver on a robot without a manipulator could be a second coach, doing the stuff like reading the clock aloud that's normally assigned to the real coach. That way the coach can focus on strategy and collaboration exclusively.

That being said, even if all you have is a base and a kicker, a second driver is probably better. Do it.


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On a side note, I just realized you're from my team. Drop me a PM.