How do teams see their cameras in match? The computer is too low for our drivers to properly watch.
We fixed that by mounting a 12"x8" computer monitor about 8" from my nose.
We built it last year because we had something like 6 cameras on the bot.
It works well!
However our programmer (the guy who has to carry it) isn’t as in love…
I know this isn’t the typical way that a drive team runs, but with the human element players aside, I run my drive team this way:
Drive Coach: Communicate between alliance partners and myself to coordinate if they need anything or we need anything, or if there is a task at hand that needs us to physically work together to complete.
Co-Driver: They watch my surroundings as I drive that are just outside of my peripheral view, and keep me informed on everything from scoring, defense, or end game opportunities to hazards posed by game objects to opposing alliance members. When it comes to using the camera, they watch the camera only while I watch the robot, and I then align the robot based on the information the co-driver gives me.
Third Drive Team Member: I usually have them as an extra person to keep track of score and let me know what is going on at specific time intervals. Last year for example, if we didn’t have X-amount of gears scored by Y-time, then we’d go and play defense and setup for end game. To summarize, they keep track of things like score, time, and how the two relate to what is going on in the match.
Some final notes on why this strategy worked for us. All of our drive members go into the event trained with a list of strategies in mind, and how our robot can be plugged into different types of alliances to make those strategies work. The flexibility of our robot allows us to take charge in alliance when we have to and take the back seat to powerhouses when needed. It’s also important for your main driver to always have something to do (there were so many robots in the last couple of weeks that did next to nothing for so long in matches, it hurt). Your main driver also needs to trust the instincts of the people feeding them information, without trust, instincts, and a gameplan, it’s hard to be successful.
Does your co-driver actually drive? Or is this their sole responsibility?
Last year, we hooked up a separate monitor that was raised and angled towards the driver.
They drive when I physically can’t (happens very rarely). If there is an action that would be an inconvenience for me to operate during the game, they would operate that on a separate controller.
My co-driver is also the person next in line to take over the drive team once I’m gone. The person typically changes year with different people getting better at driving and with the effort to best gel the drive team members.