Drive Team

[snoman]

Just curious. What other sub teams are your drive team members a part of? ie build, programming, PR). My theory is build team ppl may not be the " best" drivers because they don't want to hurt the robot they put so much time into building.

[z_beeblebrox]

4183's drive team currently has:

Our fabrication lead
Our team president (who works on software and Chairman's)
Our design lead (me)
Our electrical lead

I'm pretty happy smashing our robot into things. I designed it not to break and I trust our durability testing.

[Damiaen_Florian]

I'd typically say that you should have drive team members from multiple sub teams, this way they can deal with/fix any problems a robot may have on the field since they'll be the only ones who can fix it at that current time. That being said there's also many other factors such as talent, commitment, time put into the team, etc. But it's really up to you to decide what matters the most to you.

[Neima]

What I stress on my team all the time is that the drive team should be made up of the people who can do the jobs the best. If a freshman who shows up to a decent amount of build days drives better then a senior who has been there everyday, the freshman should drive. That is the same for all of the other possessions except maybe coach.

Last year Our team had
Coach- Lead Captain/ Head of Programing
Main Driver- (me) Head of Build and Design
2nd Driver for the shooter- Head of Electronics and pneumatics
Human player - a few different students from different parts of the team

[who716]

Originally Posted by Neima

What I stress on my team all the time is that the drive team should be made up of the people who can do the jobs the best. If a freshman who shows up to a decent amount of build days drives better then a senior who has been there everyday, the freshman should drive. That is the same for all of the other possessions except maybe coach.

Last year Our team had
Coach- Lead Captain/ Head of Programing
Main Driver- (me) Head of Build and Design
2nd Driver for the shooter- Head of Electronics and pneumatics
Human player - a few different students from different parts of the team

I agree with this, as long as the freshman show up to the required amount of meeting, he would get the job. I was a victim of a similar situation my junior year. I was driver sophomore year(first year on the team) and then I got to cocky as a junior and I ended up not being as commited as I should have been, and ended up being a scouting lead and not even being on drive team. Even though I may have been more qualified for the job. Really sucked to watch the team not make it to eliminations even though we had a great robot. I learned my lesson and last year I went to every meeting and ensured I was committed beyond just being driver and I retained the driving job and we had an amazing season aswell. plus got the deans list selction for the team, wich the mentors said was based solely on this years commitments.

Last year
Driver me- (mechanical)
Operater- (mechanical)
Coach- (mechanical/ design)
human player- (mechanical)

all 3 years I have been on the team a mechanical student has been driver, operater, and human player and for the most part coach except for when a mentor was one year.

[IronicDeadBird]

For me it was whoever showed the dedication in learning and the willingness to take risks. When people tried driving I often stood out where they drove just to see what it does to the driving.
Destructive driving is not the aim at all its always driving that utilizes your time the best. I know we have drivers who do CAD, Programming, bit of electrical, Manufaturing, interestingly enough none of the drivers seemed to enjoy reading the game rules and planning as much how to drive as I would want them too...
Yeah I know they be watching too come at me drivers!

[Jacob Bendicksen]

We love to have a mix of departments so that most things can get fixed, but we end up with mostly fabrication people with some electronics people in there, as well. We don't pick drive team members by department, we pick them because they're the best suited to their role on drive team.

[orangemoore]

It is a mindset to have. I have been the on the drive team for two years. It hasn't been a problem for us yet but I'm certainly not afraid of breaking something. What I won't do is intentionally break the robot. Your robots have certain abilities if you can't run full speed into the wall with your manipulator down. Don't do that.

It just doesn't make sense to break your robot for no reason.

I also believe that at least one person should have intimate knowledge of the robot. I think this is very important especially for this year. If you need to make an on field repair before a match/assemble your robot. You will want someone who knows exactly how the robot works to fix it. Not the person that has been told how everything works. For most teams I don't think this is an issue but is it something overlooked sometimes.

[JamieKilburn]

We have two programmers as the driver and operator, a mentor as our drive coach, and we haven't decided on our human player yet.

[IronicDeadBird]

I find it interesting that we all seem to be level on the idea of crashing robots out of durability...
Guess my mindset is a bit off, on the field I expect them to do their best to try their hardest to give it everything. Last year shoving was okay and I approved of it but I would absolutely chew out a driver when the driving was overly aggressive. So a random crash not okay no spite no hate.. just competition.
That being said there are certain lines that I take as courtesy when competing. If a robot is dead on the field you don't kick em while they are down...
Rivalries are what we have on field, refreshments and relaxation time is what we have off of it.

[Lij2015]

Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird

I find it interesting that we all seem to be level on the idea of crashing robots out of durability...
Guess my mindset is a bit off, on the field I expect them to do their best to try their hardest to give it everything. Last year shoving was okay and I approved of it but I would absolutely chew out a driver when the driving was overly aggressive. So a random crash not okay no spite no hate.. just competition.
That being said there are certain lines that I take as courtesy when competing. If a robot is dead on the field you don't kick em while they are down...
Rivalries are what we have on field, refreshments and relaxation time is what we have off of it.

There's a line between driving aggressively(I did this last year) and being unsportsmanlike or a douche bag

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by Lij2015

There's a line between driving aggressively(I did this last year) and being unsportsmanlike or a douche bag

Minus the colorful language I agree but the point I should have emphasized more is that your robots durability is important but I would never want to incap a robot. Not all robots have the same tolerances...

[homerun33ss]

Our 2 drivers have been from Programming and Electronics for a while. Drive team coach is usually one of our Systems Engineers.

[Ether]

I highly recommend watching the following videos at the time markers indicated:

http://youtu.be/ALASWt2uDqw?t=47m10s Driver Qualities
http://youtu.be/ALASWt2uDqw?t=54m31s Drive Coach Qualities
http://youtu.be/ALASWt2uDqw?t=58m24s Selecting a drive team

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by Ether

I highly recommend watching the following videos at the time markers indicated:

http://youtu.be/ALASWt2uDqw?t=47m10s Driver Qualities
http://youtu.be/ALASWt2uDqw?t=54m31s Drive Coach Qualities
http://youtu.be/ALASWt2uDqw?t=58m24s Selecting a drive team

Seconded. I agree with everything Karthik says about drivers, coaches, and selecting a drive team. It all rings true with my years of FRC experience both as a student and as a coach.

I would like to emphasize the 'chemistry' bit that Karthik touched upon briefly. Drive team chemistry is VERY important, without it the drive team is not cohesive and thus much less effective. When I was a student I was appointed 'gunner' while my ex-girlfriend was appointed 'driver.' It didn't go well, we were not an effective team.