Correlation between driving skill and practice field availability

[Akash Rastogi]

Practice field + Practice bot + Iteration = awesome sauce

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Practice field + Practice bot + Iteration = awesome sauce

And who doesn't like Awesome sauce?!

[V_Chip]

Would it be possible to acquire a truck trailer to store parts 'n' stuffs in? We use a classroom for general storage (robots, computers, electronics, tools), and have a trailer located outside that holds travel supplies, game pieces, and raw materials. Our practice field components are stored beneath a stairwell.

Having a shed of sorts may be a viable option if your school allows it. As long as it is secured properly and isn't found as an eye sore I'm sure it'll work as a solution.

We have a storage bin, but it's very messy and needs to be cleaned out (on to do list). But, it's on the far side of campus, only next to the thousands of yards of fields our school uses for its highly esteemed sports programs.

[V_Chip]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

We have a storage bin, but it's very messy and needs to be cleaned out (on to do list). But, it's on the other side of campus.

Make a robot that'll pick it up...

Originally Posted by V_Chip

Make a robot that'll pick it up...

But where are we going to store that?

[V_Chip]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

But where are we going to store that?

In a bin that another robot you made... made.

Originally Posted by V_Chip

In a bin that another robot you made... made.

Challenge accepted.

[Laaba 80]

Having a practice field definitely helps, but you can be successful without one. My senior year, I drove for Breakaway, and I only got to drive the robot the night before ship, in an area that wasnt big enough for me to get the robot up to full speed. We also didnt have a practice robot. We went 30-13 on the season, won a regional, and made it to the semi finals at champs. I do wish we would have had a practice field/the time to practice.

09 and 11 had about the same amount of drive practice, but didnt quite have the same success.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Practice field + Practice bot + Iteration = awesome sauce

Re-quoted for truth.

I think a better title for the thread might be "Correlation between driving skill and driving practice"

I mean, think about it: Don't you get better at something you do often? Why do you think a 45 year old car driver is so much more likely to not have accidents that, say, an 18 year old?

It has been said that it takes 5,000 hours of doing something to get really good at it (after which improvements are negligible). But the first hours bring a greater relative improvement than the last hours.

If you driver practices several hundred hours, they might not win a competition, but they will surely get the robot to perform to its highest capabilities. (Manipulator operators as well).

[Jared Russell]

You don't need a 27 x 54 foot regulation field, but yes - having an adequately-sized practice space and the time to practice (with either your early-completed competition bot or with a practice bot) has a strong correlation with winning.

[smurfgirl]

Having practice time definitely improves teams' performance - it allows the drive team to become familiar with the robot and practice working together. You don't necessarily need a full-sized practice field - you could recreate the key elements and set those up to practice - but no one is going to tell you that good practice doesn't help. Practicing with other teams is a good idea too, because then you can recreate the feel of multiple robots playing at once.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

You don't need a practice field to win a regional where other teams don't have a practice field. However, the opposite is also true.

As far as the correlation stuff goes.. a practice field doesn't cause success but dedicated mentors and students causes a practice field AND success.

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Practice field + Practice bot + Iteration = awesome sauce

Exactly what I wanted to say.

The more you drive the faster you learn what does and doesn't work as well as where the weak points in your design are.

This is why we made 5 improvements between our 1st pass roller claw and the final championship version. We found the weak points in practice and iterated until we had it right.

If you can take care of this learning at practice rather than at the regional you are ahead of the game.

[GCentola]

This past year, we had a decent amount of practice prior to our competition. I absolutely know this helped. Even though we didn't have a full field, we had a large area of carpet and we built a rack of pegs. Putting in a few hours of tube hanging definitely helped becasue we went in to our first competition already knowing the motions of hanging tubes. We don't build a practice robot (time contraints) but we have used prior years robots to drive before our new base is up and running.

In 2010, our drivers had almost no practice whatsoever, so everything was learned at competition. With the 2011 season being my first year on the Drive Team (as Coach), I would definitely say the pre-competition practice helped me, and our drivers. I would guess that it helped our Human Player, but our cafeteria had lower ceilings so I don't know what it was like to practice throwing.