5. Drive Team Processes - FrcTeam4919/GettingStarted GitHub Wiki

Building a Drive Team

A DRIVE TEAM is a set of up to 5 people responsible for team performance for a specific MATCH in an FRC competition. There are 4 specific roles on a DRIVE TEAM. Only 1 of the 5 DRIVE TEAM members is permitted to be a non-STUDENT. The DRIVe TEAM roles are:

Role Description Max/DRIVE TEAM Criteria
COACH a guide or advisor 1 any team member, must wear “COACH” button
DRIVER an operator and controller of the ROBOT 3 STUDENT, must wear a “DRIVE TEAM” button
HUMAN PLAYER manipulate game piece Game Dependent Game Dependent
TECHNICIAN a resource for ROBOT troubleshooting, setup, and removal from the FIELD 1 any team member, must wear “TECHNICIAN” button

During the pre-season, a robot drive team is formed and trained to make sure they are ready to compete. Team Ronin uses a joysticks and a button board to run their robot, so the DRIVE TEAM must be able to communicate with each other using a minimum of words.

Team Roles

The COACH relays referee information, assists the team in predetermined strategies, or calls strategy changes when necessary. The COACH is best used to facilitate cooperation between the three teams on the alliance.

The DRIVERS are responsible for controlling the robot. The base DRIVER controls the movement of the robot around the field. as well as the shooter. The operator DRIVER controls any game element features of the robot, such as arms or elevators. A shooter may be controlled by the main or operator DRIVER. Communication between these students and working together is crucial to score as many points as possible.

The TECHNICIAN provides teams with a technical resource for pre-MATCH setup, ROBOT connectivity, OPERATOR CONSOLE troubleshooting, and post-MATCH removal of the ROBOT. See below for some pre-MATCH responsibilities for the TECHNICIAN.

The HUMAN PLAYER manipulates game pieces throughout the match. The role of the human player is specific to each game. For example, a human player may enter pieces into the field through a designated station.

Note on Scouting

The COACH must work with the scouting team to develop a strategy that all team on the alliance can perform. The Scouting information is critical to match performance.

Driver Selection

FRC has some thoughts here.

Team Building Exercise

Some team building computer games from https://blog.thebluealliance.com/2018/02/12/how-to-train-your-driveteam/: Given the theme of this year’s game, I think it only appropriate to bring to light the video game theory of driver training. Fast paced, multiplayer, teamwork based games can be invaluable to driver skills and reaction time, below, a short list.

* Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime – Fast paced multi-player with delicate reaction times. You rely heavily on your teammates.

* Overcooked – Time management based, multi-player cooking game. Not as easy as it seems, has bested many.

* Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes – Two player bomb defusal game, heavy leanings on communication and teamwork. Easy to see how people improve over time.

* Super Meat Boy – While this may seem like just an action platformer, the difficulty ramp and retro visuals make it both an easily addictive play, and good training. I’ve lost more time than I can count at basic levels in this game…

Of course, I’m not here to sell you things, but you might not have to buy a single thing. Ask your students / teammates and I’m sure you’ll find someone with at least a few of them. Best case, driver practice. Worst case, you get some good team-building.

Driving Skills

Before you even get into game-specific drills, the driver and operator need to be extremely comfortable with the controls. Ideally these buttons/joysticks are not changing. Any time spent on the controls is valuable, regardless of what drivers are doing.

Basic Skills to practice:

  • Turning the Robot
  • Positioning the Robot
  • Driving Robot at Speed

Maintaining Situational Awareness

The DRIVERS typically pay close attention to the robot and sometimes may not have great whole field situational awareness. The COACH tries to help in those instances, but ideally the COACH is ensuring the alliance is executing the strategy. Sometimes that requires standing behind one of your partners to ensure they are executing the strategy to the agreed upon plan, other times you can bounce around and pay more attention to the robot(s). Ideally though, the DRIVERS have enough practice and are comfortable enough with the robot that individual robot actions do not need to be watched. In the last few years I cannot recall watching the robot that closely unless there was a mechanical or electrical issue that we were trying to diagnose through the glass.

Knowing the Rules

Every member of the DRIVE TEAM should know the rules completely. The DRIVE TEAM muse strive to perfect the understanding of and application of the rules to avoid penalties. Penalties lower both the score in the match and the reputation as a collective team. Many matches have been decided on one mere penalty.

Good teams with robust scouting will make note of rule violations by other teams.

Offensive Principles

  • Drive to win - Your job is to drive to win, the pit crew's job is to fit the robot and keep it in working order.
  • Protect your appendages - some robot elements extend beyond the perimeter, protect them.
  • Avoid tunnel Vision - be a role player not a sole player, work with teammates and not against them.
  • Drive with Finesse - good driving requires precision, time is priceless don't waste it

Offensive Strategies

  • Position/defined role - each alliance member performs specified role during match, may involve performing specific tasks
  • Zone - each alliance member stays in certain locations in the field, prevents self interference, can complicate moving game pieces

Offensive Styles

  • Aggressive - Brute force, needs string drive train,
  • Avoidance - Constant motion, speed and smoothness are necessary,

Defensive Principles

  • Don't play chicken with referee - play best defense, but don't acquire penalties
  • Adapt to the environment - fast game with many unexpected events! know how to move a dead robot to block your opponent
  • Anticipate - anticipate direction so you are not outmaneuvered, take note of opponents' robot capabilities and driving styles before match

Defensive Strategies/Styles

  • Attack
  • Protect
  • Lure

Technical Skills

All members of the DRIVE TEAM are encouraged to have knowledge of the basic functionality of the ROBOT, such as the location and operation of the main circuit breaker, connecting and resetting joysticks or gamepads from the OPERATOR CONSOLE, and removing the ROBOT from the FIELD.

Responsibilities for the TECHNICIAN may include, but are not limited to:

  • location of the ROBOT radio, its power connection, and understanding of its indicator lights
  • location of the roboRIO and understanding of its indicator lights
  • username and password for the OPERATOR CONSOLE
  • restarting the Driver Station and Dashboard software on the OPERATORCONSOLE
  • changing the bandwidth utilization (e.g. camera resolution, frame rate, etc.)
  • changing a battery
  • charging pneumatics

Driver Station Software

Driver Station Best Practices before the competition, at the competition, and before each match

Operator Console

Joystick/Button board

Troubleshooting the Robot

Network Issues

Power Issues

Drive team practice

Boil the game and your robot down to anything you could do in a match. The COACH, with the DRIVE team, should figure out specific paths/plays that they can run through with their drive team.

  • Mock matches-ideal match, average match, worst case scenario matches (think about anything that could go wrong like an encoder getting unplugged or mechanism failure)
  • Mock matches/runs with defense
  • Mock matches/runs with other teams (if possible, on a full field/with teams you’ll be competing with)

Ideally, game strategies are usually determined and practiced at before the competition. Discussions are had regarding which strategy makes the most sense and how it might change on the fly.

Driving Drills and Practice

Driving practice is intended to give the drive team direct, hands on experience with the robot and to get good at it. Team 2168 has a training document with an extensive description of practice drills for developing driver skills http://team2168.org/images/stories/OrganizationDocuments/Driver%20Training_8.22.11.pdf

Drills

  • Slalom Course
  • Three Point turn
  • Others: 45s, Juke, Evade, Narrow Escape

Mock Match

With single robot, practice scoring with timed match and simulated field. The DRIVERS know what strategy to execute well before the match and can coordinate that themselves with the other alliance partners and then can ideally execute it without the coach. Exercise specific paths/plays that might occur when employing strategies in different scenarios:

  • ideal match,
  • average match,
  • worst case scenario matches

Simulated Competition Practice

With two robots, practice a timed match on simulated field with mock game elements. Exercise specific paths/plays that might occur when 2nd robot acts as defense. The idea is to try to make sure the drivers understand the physics/dynamics of game play and game element interaction.

Team v Team scrimmage

  • Mock match with other teams (if possible)

Practice Areas

  • Driveway
    • 15 by 45 somewhat level. Easy access
    • Exclusive use
    • Has power, battery charger, storage space (robot cart 24” by 38” by 48” tall), chairs, and restroom
  • Northmont Park (Concrete Pad North of restrooms
    • 15 by 25 level. Easy access. Not likely to being used
    • Restrooms
  • La Mesita Park Oval
    • 100 by 50 Oval, 50 by 70 rectangular. Large level area. Difficult access.
    • Possibly being used by others.
    • Restrooms
  • Harry Griffen Stage
    • 25 by 50 level. Difficult access
    • Possibly being used by others,
    • Restrooms
  • River Valley
    • Possibly courtyard of 10 by 30? Difficult access
    • Restrooms, Power
  • FootHills Christian Basketball court
    • 40 by 65 level. Need to ask and arrange access, easy access
    • Restrooms, power. Possibly arrange storage.

Storage Requirements

  • Cart: 25” deep by 37” long by 45” tall
  • Driver stations 5’ by ?? Long by ?? Deep

Resources

Links to other teams