Introduction to Driving

Basics

There's two main ways to drive: arcade and tank drive.

• Arcade: easier with left joystick moving forward and backward, right joystick moving left or right. (Chris's personal choice)
• Tank: bit more advanced with left joystick moving left side wheels and right joystick moving right side wheels. Enables more control. (pro choice)

Drive Code

Drive code should be tuned to one's preference, but joysticks percentage should determine your speed. Ex: moving joystick up 40% should have your speed set 40%. You should always be able to move precisely without flicking the joystick.

Practice

Your skill is determined by how familiar you are with your controls and turning/driving speed. If you don't practice moving around, you will struggle all season. Practice picking up game elements and scoring as much as possible to become familiarized. A good way to practice is running skills a bunch, but the field is shared so picking up game elements in an area and scoring them in quick succession is always good practice. Remember, going slow and scoring is faster than going quick and missing. Speed comes with practice.

Strategy

Game strategy always changes the more the season progresses. The best teams will watch matches from YouTube and other teams to understand the best strats. Your job as the driver is to focus on your bot and the nearby surrounding environment. You should have a drive lookout (another teammate) to watch the rest of the field for potential scoring or defense as well as other robots. The drive lookout is advised not to look at your robot since you are already doing that.

Ego

Driving is not a skill you become better at by just learning or watching. You must want to become the best. A coder can just code and a builder can just build, once they write the words or build the bot, they're done. A driver can't always just drive, you have to replicate greatness a hundred times over on the field. If you feel intimidated by the teams that are "better" than you or "higher" in rank, just remember, they are chuds, you are goat, you just didn't have time to shine yet. The best teams always blame the other teams (this is a joke). You're the best, you'll win, and remember, age and qualification rank are just a number.

Whether first or last, as long as you're there, there's a chance. If you can't imagine winning, you won't, so just win.

By Chris Min