Good vs. Great Drive Teams

[R1ffSurf3r]

confidence not arrogance

[Mike Starke]

Obviously, the more practice you can get the better anyone will perform.
But...

I was on drive team for two years back in 2006-2007. And something that I noticed between the two years is that the most qualified people were not on the drive team, including myself. However, what in my opinion was more important, is that we worked EXTREMELY well together. We had each others backs and we never second guessed each others decesions to what they did on the field. We were team players.
A bickering drive team, who may be more "qualified", will be less effective than that of a team who can effectively drive (may not be the best on the team) but who is a people person and can work well with others.

There have been several kids on our team who have expressed an interest in driving the robot, but factors such as, a hot temper, and not working well with others, hurts their chance at the drive team. Think about alliances and working with other teams- those 4 people on your drive team are sometimes the only image of your team that other people get.

So I think there's a balance between the most qualified people- and people that will work well together, and drive as a TEAM.

I agree with most of what has been said so far.

Rules: Very important.

Practice: Very important.

The dedication to spend hours sitting in front of a blank TV with your Playstation controller pretending you are driving: Priceless.

Back to the subject, I read somewhere that drivers/operators are born, not made, and I half agree with that. I'm not saying no one can be a driver because of skill. Skill is something you can usually obtain through lots of practice, but then again we all can practice. What I agree with is that some people have certain qualities that make them better candidates than the others. Working well with others, being graciously professional, and working with an alliance using scouting info are all examples of quality traits that need to be present in a driver. The only problem is, not everyone has those traits. Driver qualities are not something that can be learned. You can practice with the robot all you want, but that won't make you a better communicator with your team.

My final words: While everyone can be a driver, not everyone should.

[theprgramerdude]

In my experience, unless the arena is at a moderate volume (read: never), the captain rarely can do anything to easily communicate with the two drivers unless they were wearing headsets with noise-cancelling headphones (idea?).

The two drivers on a good drive team work well together, and most importantly, work well under the pressure of only two minutes of performance. OK drivers can move the robot smoothly, but lose sight of the whole arena easily when focusing on getting good control and motion of the robot to it's destination. Good drivers should be able to do this and be capable of analyzing the game at the same time.

Great drive teams, in my opinion, are essentially made of three people: two are the good drivers. The third is the robot software. Humans are great analysts at controlling robots, and learn smooth movements extremely fast, but their reaction time and precision can easily be beat by the Crio commanding certain executions with input from sensors located on the robot. In this way, the two drivers are really the captains of the machine, and the Crio drives. Results may vary when in a transition from good to great. There's going to be a hard limit on what a person can do while driving; if you want a better machine driver, just throw on more technology and better code.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by theprgramerdude

In my experience, unless the arena is at a moderate volume (read: never)...

Because of this, when we practice, we usually do so while blasting really loud music right behind the drivers. Our drivers say it's a great help to learn to tune out loud noises before the competition.

[Peyton Yeung]

Originally Posted by mr.roboto2826

I myself was a driver for three years, its best to let the drivers pick what they want to use, and not just use something that you think will work for them.

I totally agree. This past year was my first year as the primary driver and I got to create the driver station and setup for our machine. The controls were very intuitive because I had the ability to select what controls I wanted.

PS: I think the difference between good and great is just in the details. (Almost) Anyone can operate a robot but it's the great ones that spend hours refining their skills and abilities. Also trying to be innovative helps. We learned it was much more efficient to hang our tubes in a backwards orientation rather than turning around every time.

[smurfgirl]

The most important aspect of a drive team that will make them successful is by far the amount of practice time they get. A great drive team has drivers that instinctively know how to do anything with their robot, without thinking about it. A great drive team acts as a set of four hands which get commands from one brain (the coach). It takes a lot of practice to make this happen. The more closely you can simulate a competition, the better - practice with loud music on, with old robots on the field (bonus - you also can get multiple people practice at once this way), and invite other teams over to practice with you if you can. Once operating the robot and strategy decisions become natural, your team will perform a lot better overall.

[MysterE]

I think this is one of the training areas that I am the most unsure of. How do you train a Drive Coach - or better yet - how can you train yourself to be the Drive Coach.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by MysterE

I think this is one of the training areas that I am the most unsure of. How do you train a Drive Coach - or better yet - how can you train yourself to be the Drive Coach.

Practice makes perfect!

A good candidate for a drive coach is a natural leader - they already have some of the key skills needed. After that, it's all about practice and experience, which takes awhile but will help tremendously.

[plnyyanks]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Practice makes perfect!

Ditto. Watch lots of match videos, remember the type of game strategy you designed your robot to do, and practice as much as you humanly can.

[Ninja_Bait]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Practice makes perfect!

A good candidate for a drive coach is a natural leader - they already have some of the key skills needed. After that, it's all about practice and experience, which takes awhile but will help tremendously.

Practice driving, too, so you know what you're talking about when you're not the one on the sticks.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Ninja_Bait

Practice driving, too, so you know what you're talking about when you're not the one on the sticks.

Fun fact: It is impossible to get me to voluntarily give up the controls to our 2011 robot.

[Gdeaver]

The one most critical trait that I look for in a driver is situational awareness. Most drivers have a terrible case of myopia when it comes to driving in a FIRST competition. Let me try to explain. Most first games are highly dynamic and with 6 bots on the floor it tends to be very chaotic. The large majority of drivers I have worked with tend to lock on to their robot, the field piece and the chosen action they perceive to be the next choice for action. They do not perceive the rest of the field and the dynamic actions that are taking place. They are locked onto the current action and can not see or disconnect to take advantage of another opportunity that has suddenly presented it's self on the field outside of their narrowed field of vision. Then every once in awhile there is that one individual who has this perceptual brain functionality. Many times they are written off by the team because other drive candidates have better control finesse. Practice can make any individual a good driver from a control perspective. Situational awareness - I believe you are born that way. The real problem is that the dynamics that happen at a real competition can not be duplicated while practicing at home. We have tried having a second bot on the floor to play PITA to the primary bot. It doesn't come close to the real thing. Off season comps are are great time to search for this elusive person.

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

The one most critical trait that I look for in a driver is situational awareness...

I read this as situational awesomeness.

[Drivencrazy]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

The one most critical trait that I look for in a driver is situational awareness.

In my opinion it would be the coaches responsibility to have this situational awareness and it would be more important for the driver to have a cool head and the ability to execute maneuvers. I think the coach should be the one to pay attention to the field and give the driver instructions. If you have your driver look for scoring opportunities while also trying to do something else with the robot you will get mediocre results on both fronts.

Find a coach that knows the game, your strategy, and your robot's capabilities. And as far as the driver goes, practice practice practice. There is nothing that can make up for drive time. A driver with a good robot and a lot of practice can easily keep pace with a better robot and a driver with little practice.