Does each person in the team need a team role, and if so, what roles are there to fill. Also further information on the teams would be greatly appreciated.
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I would say try it and find out, but since the results are disastrous, I will just tell you:
Yes.
If you do not assign a specific role to each person, you will probably end up with everyone doing nothing. However, leave some leeway if people want to switch roles. Often, people will come into robotics with a clear idea of what they want to do, but then change it in a few weeks.
Builder/Designer
Programmer
Driver
Notebooker (optional)
Of course, these are just general roles, and can be broken down even further.
I’m not cutting on big teams, and there are some excellent big teams out there, but for me four people was an absolute maximum, also because of what I said before: if some people don’t have a specific role, they may just do nothing and get in the way.
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Drive
Build
Code
CAD
Designer
Scout
Notebook
Snack Man
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Welcome to the forum!
Normally the roles are: Driver(s), Programmer(s), Builders, Notebooker(s). If you have any more questions regarding teams ask away.
- Henry 344E
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The main ones would be builder, programmer, driver, and notebooker, but if there are more people on the team you could have roles like cadder and scout so that everyone does something. I think that i team would be the most efficient if it has 3-5 people on it. Less than three will make it hard to get things done, while having more than 5 people will cause some people to not work and can act as a distraction to other team members.
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Thank you so much. While we are on that however, a lot of you people mentioned a notebooker, what does that entail.
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A notebooker would be a person who documents the design, strategy, and the process of creating the robot in their engineering notebook. They can write about many things like how they found their design, the process of building it, how it works, and how their team has modified it as the season progresses.
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Ideally, a team notebook has contribution from ALL team members. Yes, someone on the team might want to manage the process to make sure it is done. It is expected that all team members contribute or are knowledgeable about all facets of their team development.
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Yes, each person in a team should ideally have a team role to ensure that all necessary tasks are covered and that the team can work together effectively. There are many different roles that people can play in a team, and the specific roles needed will depend on the nature of the team’s work, the team’s goals, and the strengths and skills of the individuals involved.
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Yes, notebook is actually really important, and if you’re notebook is organized and updated often, with lots of pictures, signatures, explanations, and every entry is dated (make sure to fill out the table of contents!), you’re on the right track for award considerations such as the Excellence and Design Awards (although you kinda have to be on top of everything else if you want Excellence).
For notebook organization ideas, I would recommend looking up ideas. My team got our notebook idea from YouTube, and it helped us in the long run.
Hope this helps!
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For team roles, my teammates and I split it amongst ourselves differently, but generally for us it is:
Programmer
Builder
Driver
Designer
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due to huge issues with team imbalances and equipment supply imbalances (for the first time in 4 years we finally could have more than one team and we screwed it up by not making a plan for sharing resources and people, I ended up with all the broken stuff and terrible people who dont help.) This year we are making a new plan, starting with 5 people per team.
Just wanna add some of my experience to this thread, here is my thoughts:
Team Members: 3 - 5
3 members work if each member is committed, and lots of available time for robotics.
5 members work if 1 or 2 members are very committed and the rest of the members are in more specialized roles, with less commitment needed.
Team Roles:
Driver - Drives Robot, should be the most skilled driver on the team, lots of practice and experience is needed to be a good driver.
Builder - Builds Robot, should know advanced building techniques, how to cut & drill material, how to build a durable robot, etc.
Designer - Designs Robot Mechanisms, should know what works mechanically, know what materials are available for building mechanisms, etc.
Modeler - Models Robot, know how to use a 3D modeling software, should be able to work quickly and efficiently, as well as making a model easy to work with for a builder (making separate components/mechanisms grouped together in order to hide/view desired component)
Notebook Manager - Manages Notebook, does not write entire notebook. Every team member should contribute to the engineering notebook, one person should manage the notebook to make sure entries have correct spelling, grammar, formatting, etc.
Team members usually have multiple roles, here is what I’ve found to be a good team composition:
3 Person Team
- Team Member 1: Driver/Builder
- Team Member 2: Builder/Designer/Modeler
- Team Member 3: Coder/Notebook Manager
5 Person Team
- Team Member 1: Driver
- Team Member 2: Designer/Builder
- Team Member 3: Builder
- Team Member 4: Builder/Modeler
- Team Member 4: Coder/Notebook Manager
Some subroles that I’ve found to be useful:
SNACK MAN (most important role ever), i think this has been said in this thread before
Tournament Scout - Scouts other teams at a tournament. This involves talking to alliance partners in quali, and also potential alliance partners. When talking to quali alliance partners, scouts should talk about robot reliability, functions, and autonomous. Coders often follow scouts to code a simple auton for quali teammates if necessary
Field Scout - Part of the drive team, gives information to the driver about whats happening on the field, potential strategies, urgent events, etc. This team member is vital to a good drive team. As a driver, you get laser focused on whats happening with your robot, and lose awareness of whats happening on the field. The field scout tells the driver all the information that they are missing.
Researcher - This team member can be very useful early season. Knowing what other teams are doing, what strategies are effective, and condensing all of this down into a simple report to the other team members is extremely helpful when deciding on what design direction to take before a meta forms.
General Team Support - This person usually helps with the build process (grabbing materials, tools, hardware, etc) as well as being available to do anything at a tournament (grabbing a battery, lifting the robot, etc)
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Here at Altona Middle School Longmont Colorado, we prefer 3-4 people on each team but most of the time we have 3 people on each and if someone starts a team of 4 well, that team falls apart or lose’s a teammate.
Our team generally gets about 8-10 members each year soooo… 
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Wow! That’s a lot of people!!!
My team has:
Builder - This person is the main person to build the robot and put it together
Programmer - This person codes the robot and tests out the code
Designer - This person designs pieces for the robot such as the launcher and bar climber
Team Leader - This person delegates tasks and roles to people on the team
Scout - This is me, I scout other teams that we are competing against in the competition
Notebook Person - This person takes care of the notebook and manages it
Photographer - This person takes images for the notebook and helps with the notebook
Driver - This person practices driving the robot to drive at competitions
Slave Driver - This is the backup driver that also loads tribals into the robot
You may not have enough people to fill out the roles because my team doesn’t. We just give people multiple roles, for example, someone could be a designer and a driver at the same time.
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In my opinion the most common roles are notebooker, builder, driver, and coder.
would recommend that you find less derogatory terminology to describe roles. In professional industries a lot of change has been occurring in how we label things in order to be welcoming to all.
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