So I took a nap earlier and woke up with this idea. Kinda wanna go with it. If we use mecanum wheels this year or in future years (which may or may not happen, depending on the competition), then the robot will be able to strafe (move side to side) without rotating.
A demonstration of mecanum drive
The idea I got was to strafe opposite the direction our bot was manually turning if a certain button was pressed. This would produce a drifting effect, in which we are pointed toward the object we are rotating around. My purpose in writing this is to increase robot maneuverability, allowing us to essentially 'drift' around obstacles without losing our speed or disorienting the drivers.
A demonstration of drifting
The difficult part is gonna be coding it so that turning into the drift will keep you going straight (although the bot will be sideways; this is also called powersliding), while turning into the drift will essentially make you do donuts. Once you let go of the drift button, it then needs to resume the 'traditional' driving controls, aka quickly transition back to driving straight.
A demonstration of donuts
A demonstration of straightening out