Single Driver Clarification

[Navigator1]

Aloha,

I was reading through the Official VIQC Highrise Q&A forum and found this post about single drivers. It said:

“If their Alliance partner does not have any available Students, the team would be forced to operate with only one Driver, with this single Driver only operating the Robot for a maximum of 35 seconds.”

I then compared that answer to that of another question about single drivers utilizing an autonomous program to run the second half of a match. I was wondering if it would be legal for a single driver (assuming that his/her alliance does cannot supply a second drive team member), to drive for the first 35 seconds before activating a controller program to end the match. Simply put, at the 35 seconds mark the driver would press a button and place their controller on the ground.

Technically, the single driver is not driving anymore so it wouldn’t violate the allotted time, right? Or in order for a team to use an autonomous program for the second half of the match do they have to have a second driver because the program is technically “driving?”

I know this question is similar to the post here:
“http://www.vexiqforum.com/forum/vex-iq-challenge-discussion/viqc-new-game-2014-2015-game/official-viqc-highrise-q-a/4324-single-drivers”
… but the answer for that post doesn’t specifically state if it is legal to run an program in the absence of a second driver (it only permits the running of a autonomous program with a second driver present).

~ Navigator Robotics

[Karthik]

@Navigator1

“If their Alliance partner does not have any available Students, the team would be forced to operate with only one Driver, with this single Driver only operating the Robot for a maximum of 35 seconds.”

I then compared that answer to that of another question about single drivers utilizing an autonomous program to run the second half of a match. I was wondering if it would be legal for a single driver (assuming that his/her alliance does cannot supply a second drive team member), to drive for the first 35 seconds before activating a controller program to end the match. Simply put, at the 35 seconds mark the driver would press a button and place their controller on the ground.

No, this is not permitted. Each Team shall include two Drivers for each match; there must be a handoff of the controls.

One of the biggest goals of the VEX IQ Challenge is to teach students about teamwork, hence the rules being designed to encourage driving partnerships. Each team is required to have two Drivers during a match. If you team does not have two Drivers, you may borrow a driver from you Alliance Partner team. However, there is no rule on how much driving each Driver must do during their allotted time period. Thus if the first Driver wants to drive for :30 and then hit a button to activate programming before passing the controller to the second Driver, this is acceptable.

In the spirit of inclusiveness we hope teams utilize the two driver rule as a way to foster teamwork and cooperation, giving multiple team members a chance to drive the robot. We encourage teams who currently only have one student to use this opportunity to seek out teammates and further develop their team work and cooperation skills.