One of the mentors on our team wants us to make the robot on one controller like you would with video games. We are trying to convince him that it is better to have two controllers. We have told him that it would be easier for one driver to concentrate on the field and the other can concentrate on shooting and climbing. So why do other teams have to drivers?
More people = More chance at winning. It’s just as easy as that. Why do FRC teams have more than one person building the robot? It’s easier to do a task when more people help out. If one person needs to pay attention to your robot, the defenders, the time, the shooter, climbing and still make good decisions, it would be very hard. Having a second driver puts less pressure on one person.
Exactly that. And less buttons for each to remember. It gives them less things that they have to excel at, making each better.
Exactly why you said–one to drive, one to concentrate on other things. There’s a reason that the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps fighter squadrons, who can run single or double, often run 2-man cockpits. One pilot flies, one pilot takes care of navigation, targeting, and that sort of thing.
If you think you can control the entire robot better with one driver then by all means do it; no one is stopping you. You can even hold an empirical test and let this mentor try controlling the whole robot versus splitting it up as it is done traditionally.
Some robots lend themselves better to a driver/controller setup; we’ve found that when we don’t have some sort of major appendage (like an arm or elevator) it’s best to give the driver the “shoot” functionality since it is most efficient. However, in the case where we have something like an articulating arm and wrist it makes a whole lot more sense to let the driver focus on positioning and let someone else do the arm.
Depending on how complicated your controls for shooting/climbing are, I’d argue that it might be easier to just stick with one driver and not worry about two people trying to coordinate their actions in a loud stadium. It doesn’t matter how much practice you’ve had if it’s been in a quiet room at your school where the drivers can hear each other perfectly, because as soon as that isn’t possible, your coordination will take a hit.
More often than not, two drivers should be able to more effectively utilize a ‘common’ FRC robot. Like others have said above, one driver will focus on where the robot needs to go and how to get there (base driver) and the other driver can focus on what it does when it’s there (operator/aux driver).
That being said, some machines are so simple that they can easily and more effectively be driven by a single driver. If this is the case, using one driver is perfectly acceptable.
I can remember a handful of machines in 2010 that were more or less ‘driven’ by a single person an the second driver/operator acted as a second coach of sorts. It’s an interesting dynamic for sure.
Many FRC robots require several different operator inputs in order to accomplish the game objective. With only one person driving, that person is forced to coordinate many different robot functions all at once. Generally it takes quite a bit longer for one person to do it than it does for two drivers. For example, a robot this year might require a number of parameters to be correct in order to score in the 3-point goal. This includes (but is not limited to):
- Robot position (on field)
- Robot orientation (turn angle)
- Robot speed (if shooting while moving)
- Shooter elevation
- Shooter speed
- Shooter alignment (if a turret is used)
- Number of discs in hopper
- Any approaching robots or other obstacles
If two people are operating, it is far easier for one person to deal with drive base parameters while the other operator focuses on the shooter/hopper parameters. If a team of two people has solid communication (e.g. “I am going to drive under the pyramid and stop under the back bar so we can aim and shoot into the 3-point goal” or “I would like for you to drive right under the middle of our pyramid so I can try to aim for the high goal”), then both operators can coordinate their tasks and prime the robot quickly for shooting into one of the goals. A good coach is also key to creating a solid game plan, as the coach can read the entire field and alert the drivers of rapidly changing game conditions. Sometimes it may feel as if all the talking is superfluous and tiresome, but I can guarantee that a highly prepared drive team with solid communication can out-perform a single driver in pretty much any situation.