Rajeev,
I'll share my 2-cents to add to what others have seen.  I've coached 4th
and 5th graders for a number of years.  I have had a team get 2nd place in
the robot game without using any sensors at competition (after
briefly trying gyro and color sensor for line following).  I have had a
team with great success using a color sensor for line detection and touch
sensor for where to stop.  I would estimate maybe a little less than half
of Division I teams make good use of a sensor.

I really encourage teams to try to use a sensor (or other technique) to get
precise movements. The default seems for the kids just to keep trying to
add 0.1 rotation here or there or change where the robot starts in order to
try to get it to end up where they want it to.  Of course if they learn
that is not effective, then want to try something else better, that would
be great, but I'll admit I really encourage them to do *something* other
than just iterating.

This year the sample Crane solution from First has a good simple
proportional line follower using color sensor.  Given more time I think
better to start them with 2-state (right if black, left if white) approach
then move to proportional but this year just jumped in with that.

For sensors in general, I think the touch sensor is the best place to
start.  A program that says drive until the touch sensor hit is pretty
simple.  And definitely remember you can add things to the touch sensor so
it can detect a "touch" at more than just the one point.

I think the conventional wisdom is the gyro and ultrasonic sensor are not
reliable enough to be effective in competition, but I had a team do very
well one year using the gyro (though had to be slow turns).  And of course
they are still effective in learning!

Hope that helps.

Jeff

On Sun, Oct 6, 2019 at 6:52 PM Rajeev Mehra <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Greetings!
> Coach of a rookie team here. I am wondering if other teams use the sensors
> available in the kit?
>
> I see there are plenty of opportunities, like ultrasonic sensor to guide
> the robot to a certain location away from something else, color sensor for
> following the black lines on the mat, gyro sensor for accurate turns and
> straight line driving.............BUT........do FLL teams actually use
> them? Are they just too difficult to use and/or understand?
>
> I wonder if I should spend the time teaching the kids about these
> "advanced options", or should I just let them figure it out themselves or
> let them choose whether or not to use these fancy things.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Rajeev Mehra
>
> Coach: Ultimate Onions
>
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