Rookie Mistakes: Competition

Neglect driver practice → Constant driver training

A persistent problem with new teams is neglecting driver practice. Drive practice is to be done throughout the season, not the week before competition. No matter how good your robot is, the robot is only 50% of the equation. The driver(s) is the other 50% which determine the success of the team as a whole. Even if your robot is the best in the world, an inferior robot with a competent drive team more than likely will beat your robot with a poor drive team. By April’s world championships, most top teams have run hundreds of practice matches. This gives some obvious advantages compared to a team with lesser practice. 1) the driver(s) is totally familiar with handling the robot in every situation. 2) the robot is proven to be reliable enough to survive hours of operation. 3. the immense data that teams gather from test runs are used to optimize every element of the robot. Driver practice not only familiarizes the driver(s) with the robot and serves as a test of robot reliability, it also simulates in-game conditions. Learning to push the limits of your robot should be done in practice, not at competition. This way, drivers will become more comfortable driving under stress and pressure. Teams with intensive driver practice will purposely make things more difficult (such as placing a disabled robot in the middle of the field or unplugging a drivetrain motor). Extreme, you might say? No, it’s called preparedness. If your driver doesn’t know how to react, then you need more drive practice.

No game strategy → Strategic driving

Similar to drive practice, this is something that many inexperienced teams ignore. A sports example is handy - even with the most talented players, a team won’t go far without good game strategy. An inferior team with better strategy execution could even pull off an upset. Planning a strategy ensures that every second in the 2:30 game time is used to the maximum efficiency, which yields more points. For example, drivers should know exactly where the robot needs to be positioned after the autonomous → tele-op switch. Practicing this switch will save a couple of seconds when drivers have to think “what do I do now?” Knowing when to transition from a tele-op to endgame objective is equally important (hint: perfect one first) and will save valuable time. Strategy should always be used to maximize points - whether this is a positioning strategy to access the game elements, or a defensive strategy to hinder the other alliance from scoring. Remember, denying the other alliance 10 points is the same value as scoring 10 points. However, it is not advised for rookie teams to play defense due to the specific rules surrounding this strategy. If a team wishes to execute a defensive strategy, be sure to read all the rules as defense can incur penalties/cards if done improperly.

Fully driver-controlled → Partially automated tasks

Autonomous should not be limited to only the autonomous mode. Automating simple tasks can be a real time-saver and efficiency boost to teams. First of all, automating tasks can save time and reduce the need for driver multi-tasking. Drivers should always be controlling the robot with as few button presses as possible. For example, automatically stopping the intake mechanism when game elements have been collected saves a button press. Second, autonomously operating some mechanisms has the advantage of eliminating driver error and relieves stress. For example, if a lift has to extend to exactly 30 inches, a motor with an encoder can complete that with 100% accuracy at full speed, compared to a human driver’s minor error. Note: autonomous functions should be able to be overrided by manual input in case something goes wrong (e.g. encoder is unplugged, a part breaks, etc.) to prevent damage to the robot.