Drive Team

FIRST General Forum
#43

We’re using the same drive crew that we selected last year. The philosophy that we had during the selection process was “hire for attitude, train for skill”.

You can train most people to operate a robot relatively easily. It’s a lot harder to train a drive crew to think tactically, communicate effectively, and work as a team all while under pressure.

Our drive team was made up of (last year’s position/this year’s position)

Driver: Drive member (as in the team that designs and build the robot chassis)/ Drive member
2nd Driver: Electronics member / Electronics team lead
Human Player: Mechanics member / Director of communications
Coach: Electronics team lead / Director of Operations

Most people with the qualities of a good driver should do very well on a robotics team, so it isn’t surprising that most of our drive crew in leadership positions on the team.

As a side note, all of the members of the drive crew are good friends outside of robotics, which means that they have really good chemistry and have very effective teamwork.

#44

Last year we had:

Coach- Team Co-President
Driver- Head of Programming
Operator- Head of PR
Human Player- Head of Mechanical

It was great having the head of programming as the driver (for 3 years) because he knew the controls and operation of the robot well.
PR really helped in strategizing and planning with other teams (extroverted, outgoing kid).
A skilled mechanic was extremely important to fix any pre-match issues. He even had to replace a wheel quickly before the Virginia Regional finals last year.
And as the coach, I’d like to say I knew the rules and strategies and could keep us calm under pressure.

#45

Yeah I meant more that the Coach has the final say in all on-the-field behavior. Like if a coach decides that going for a certain game piece is not worth it, then the drivers are expected to follow his commands. This isn’t how my old team does it, but it is how my current team is looking to implement things.

#46

*I’ll recommend this again in case new readers missed it. Those videos are really worth watching.

#47

We have done this in the past - even putting one of our past drivers in at coach (he drove us to the #4 seed on curie in 2011) and it didn’t work out any better than one of our students who had never driven before. In fact, we won a regional with our old human player at the coach position, and we lost horribly in quarterfinals with our old driver at coach.

I guess it falls down to personal preference. I know more than the rest of the team about the robot and the game. I wire and program the robot. Part of that is because the team consists of kids who have only been on the team for 2 years at most, while this is my 4th (I don’t wanna graduate! I love driving!).

#48

Last year, our drive team was composed of the following:

Driver: Team Secretary, Video and Graphics Lead
Manipulator: Head Programmer
Coach: President, Build Lead
Human Player: Vice President of Build

We had almost the same drive team in 2013, the coach from 2013 is currently one of our Vice Presidents of Public Relations. So there is quite a variety on the drive team. When I became the driver in 2013, I had been an active member, but I didn’t know much about the mechanical aspects of the robot; I had mainly worked on graphics for the team (logo, font, shirt designs, etc). Because of this, I believe a good philosophy to have is see who is the best for the position, because you don’t necessarily have to have built the robot to understand the most efficient way to drive it. In fact, sometimes it’s helpful to have someone who hasn’t had a ton of experience with the robot drive it because they will provide a different perspective.

#49

Last year we ran

Driver: Build Officer
Operator: Electrical Lead/Electrical Lead Temporary Replacement
Human Player: Assembly Lead
Coach: Some Loser Alumnus (ME!)

Last year was the only time in the entire history of the team we ran a non-student coach. Every position was filled in a previous year, with myself last DCing in 2012 and 2010 and the driver, operator, and human player all on the 2013 team. When I rejoined the team full-time in the winter of 2014, there was no student anointed and/or trained for the position in a game where coaching was more contentious and intense than 2012. We recently have had students that could hold down the position, with 2014 as an aberration.

I’m still not sure if having an adult or student coach is the better fit for this team, but I do know that this year I don’t have any plans to be the primary drive coach.

The option is available for us to plug in four experienced drive team members again, but this year I am working with the students and mentors to identify a new coach that might cause 3 new members to join the drive team.

Some team members (and I assume some people in FIRST in general) think the alpha and omega of drive team selection is how well you do your job. When I was DC in 2012, we had a talented human player, driver, and operator for the jobs.

They were all impossible to work with alone, much less in a group. When each person could highlight their talents we did well, but we could get btfo’d if one person was having a bad day.

Likewise, the drive team members that have been involves for the last tow years may not be the best people on the team behind the sticks (I have no idea if anyone else is better), but they are at every meeting working on a robot with the intention of it being a winning robot they are on the field with. They kept each other “in check”, babysat the robot, led up repairs, communicated well with each other (and me), and were good at listening and understanding the rules. Last year, they did their jobs so well to the point that I was probably the weak link. We picked a rookie to fill in as operator at Championships. He was still remembering the buttons while we were packing up, but the dude was, and still is, straight up dedicated to the team and was unquestionably the best choice for the job.

The drive team needs to be the four best people you can pick with the capacity to understand the drive team, but ymmv.

#50

Did you mean “appoint” or did you intend to use “anoint?”

#51

As the drive mentor for 1640, swerve, especially since we were robot centric, took a long time to get the drive team up to speed. The driver, operator and the human player come from any function on the team, however I insist the team have a working knowledge of the robot so they can talk to mechanical and programming about any issues that might occur. I also harp on good communication skills, even with the competition coach so they are all working from the same language.
PS. Don’t ever underestimate the value of a good human player.

#52

Driver: Prototyping, mostly.
Operator: Lead Programmer
Human Player: Does a little bit of everything really, lately software.
Coach: Software Mentor, Ofiicial Pascack-Magic Source
Backup: Electrical, Software

#53

Easy:

Best driver
2nd Best driver
Best Human player
Best coach

Regardless of department

#54

What is your definition of “best” in the above context?

#55

Driver: Student lead and main CAD guy
Operator: electrical and mechanical guy
HP: Drive base CAD girl

#56

Human player - general builder
Driver 1 (me) - electrical, designer, builder, and chairmans director, and webmaster

Driver 2/coach - programming lead, team president, builder.

#57

Driver 1. Drive Captain, Mechanical, CAD
Driver 2. Electrical, bit of mechanical
Driver 3. Programmer
And I should point out as the mentor most tied into drive practice.
I don’t actually like driving robots that much nor am I good at it.

#58

Hi guys, quick question. Is it legal for us to have an eighth grade member on drive team? I have checked both the game and admin manual and cannot find any stipulations other than, “team member” when referring to drive team. Thanks in advance!

#59

Base driver and operator require subtly different skill sets. The second best base driver has rarely been our best operator. In addition, the social dynamics between these two students are extremely important.

Hi guys, quick question. Is it legal for us to have an eighth grade member on drive team? I have checked both the game and admin manual and cannot find any stipulations other than, “team member” when referring to drive team. Thanks in advance!

Yes. Teams have done this before. The youngest I have heard of was a sixth grader.

#60

Me and our other driver are best friends as well as overall team co-captains together with another junior on the team.

He is head of mechanical, knows pneumatics, and does CAD at the beginning of the build season. I’m head of electrical, website/design, and also help (not nearly as much) with CAD. Our drive mentor is also our overall team head mentor and mainly watches over mechanical. Our human player is head of our pit amongst other things.

I have never seen as much excitement mixed with anger when he gets behind the driver station and knows just as well as I do that there’s a team on the other alliance that needs to just have a good ramming. And usually we’re all extremely pumped up when he uses the ramming capabilities especially last year, and if you build your robot sturdily enough you shouldn’t have to worry about the risks you need to take (which shouldn’t be that much this year anyways).

#61

Our drive team consists of:

Build team co-captian
Both team co-captians
As well as a Programming member

We are all well versed on electronics as well.

#62

The definition of DRIVER is “a pre-college student…”.