Re: pic: Chameleon Drive
 

one more comment: where are you putting your speed controllers and other nessesary hardware?

Re: pic: Chameleon Drive
 

Nice first full project, Nate. Here are a couple things you can check out to help you iterate; another person a while back had a similar idea.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=95179

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/36921

As with the above project, it could be a great project to make in the offseason to test different drives, but it most likely is not the practical design for a competition robot.

Also, this may be a good chance for you to learn how to create configurations of your assembly within Solidworks.

Re: pic: Chameleon Drive
 

We switched from swerve to Mecanum at the LA Regional this year; this was because we accidentally fried our swerve steering motors when calibrating the PID at San Diego and didn't want to deal with it at LA. We were able to do this very fast because we design our drive train in modules. Each module uses the same of mounting and has everything already built in (except controllers).

I really like a of things about the the OP's design, especially the design around limited manufacturing capabilities. Also, it looks like it should be able to accept mecanum as well because of the corner gearboxes. Great work!

Re: pic: Chameleon Drive
 

Just out of curiosity, how much time do you think it would take to change the drive types? It would add a neat dynamic if you could be a 6- or 8-wheel drive for quals, then switch to mecanums or a slide drive in elims so you can triple, or change drives between matches to better suit your opponents and partners.

Re: pic: Chameleon Drive
 

dude, you would take up your entire weight allowance in just the drive train and be unable to master how the robot drives.

Re: pic: Chameleon Drive
 

If you shipped as pictured in 6 or 8wd configuration, all you would need to bring would be the mecanum wheels. A slide drive would be harder because you would need an extra gearbox and motor controller, but not impossible with 30 pounds. I can't speak for driver training, but judging from the teams that already switch mid season, it isn't impossible to adjust to a different drive.

Re: pic: Chameleon Drive
 

Modular systems are allowed on a robot, but if a robot can have extra configurations--example, two arms that have different functionality--either you stick with one configuration (or do a permanent change and request reinspection) or all the configurations together must be under the weight limit. That's been in the rules for as long as I can remember.

The governing limit here isn't the Withholding Allowance. It's the robot weight. I don't think that most teams would like cutting into the 120# allowance by 15# or more.


However, I think this sort of drive system could be invaluable to a team, not necessarily in competition use but as a practice robot. Build it Day 1, throw a bunch of tests at it to figure out drive base for the year, use as a practice defender or build the rest of the robot on top of it. It's not unheard of for a competition robot to be designed to handle two different types of drivetrain, but only use one in competition.

Re: pic: Chameleon Drive
 

This is so cool! Can you possibly send me the CAD file so I can show it to my team and we might try and build a prototype of it to see how well it works

Re: pic: Chameleon Drive
 

Again, thanks for all of the comments and suggestions! I am taking all of this into consideration with version 10, so this has been a huge help.

Thanks, I have been in leadership except for my freshman year, so once in a while it is nice to get back to what I really love about robotics.

I was hoping to leave the bottom free, but I will try to work around integrating the electronics in the chassis with version 10, especially since we are likely first building this as an independent chassis.

I was actually inspired by 159's description of their bearing blocks on their final robot. I hadn't realized that it was originally such an adaptable frame, and I only saw them use 8WD in competition.

I tried to keep everything simple and easily accessible, with the idea of changing sets between quals and elims, or maybe even between matches in mind. That said, it may be more difficult accounting for weight and having a driver trained for both drives, as others have mentioned.