Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

;)

That 8 wheel swerve is going to be mad sweet!!! :yikes:

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

I am not sure why everyone is discouraging this. I believe this whole conspiracy thing is totally fake, however, no one can deny that it isn't teaching good principles. If teams are building at 75% weight, which many are, they are going to have a lot better time during the last week or so once they realize there is no endgame.

Having 20-30 pounds at the end to add support, add weights to balance, and still have a functioning robot will make crunch week a lot easier. The Team will be less stressed, judges will have an easier time, and you won't be cutting zipties to drop 1/10 lbs like we had to. Let people be misguided, it is making better, more flexible, teams.

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

Our team is heavily considering an octocanum drive where we can use the mecanum drive to maneuver ourselves into position to catch/chase the balls and use 4 normal wheels when we need to line up to shoot and not be pushed around. I'm not sure how many people have considered this because I haven't seen it mentioned yet.

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

Please keep the discussion of this silly conspiracy theory to its respective thread in the Rumor Mill. I don't want to have to read about it in other threads.

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

I too have been considering an octanum drive to great length and feel it would be the best of both worlds. My team does not have the time or experience with swerve mechanisms to develop one in 6 weeks, however we feel that being omni directional would help us a lot. By going with an octanum drive it challenges us opposed to the past 3-4 years of a standard tank setup without having to do something overly complex.

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

And finally a game made for swerve! Looking forward to seeing what the value engineering process does this year. And if you programming team makes the advances this year the way they did last year, it will be one sweet setup.

You forgot the :rolleyes: for the humor impaired....

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

Octocanum seems good too, but not as good as swerve. I like strafing for catching, and the defense is going to be trying to shove you when you are trying to catch. Octocanum can't strafe and have traction at the same time, but swerve can. But I still like Octocanum for this game for a team that can come up with one without sacrificing their ability to create a well-iterated set of scoring mechanisms.

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

Although it is true that you cannot have traction at the exact same time as you are strafing, once you are in position to catch it is just the push of a button and you have immense traction. I understand that it would be nice to have that traction 24/7, but for a team that doesn't have the ability to make a swerve, its gotta be the next best thing IMO.

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

At the end of our season swerve both saved our team and destroyed it. We did not use that much machine time from our shop. We got funding for the development of the swerve drive alone. The biggest resorese draw was not machining or even programming but a few of our high performance students left to go machine it leaving the rest of the robot in a mad house. In the end it will leave a legacy of something much more advanced then ever before. Something to build on year in and year out.
I think we got farther with a working swerve then if we would have with a better manipulate. Plus the personal reward for completing it is something amazing.

Watch some of 16, 2481, or 2451's matches. If there ever is a year where swerve makes sense, this is it.

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

You can watch some of ours to for defense

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

I feel that any team capable of designing, manufacturing, programming, and driving a swerve drive-train should do so if the weight limit allows for it. That being said, there's not very many prepared to be in that category at the beginning of competition every year, which is why teams need to develop those capabilities outside of competition (which apparently takes quite some time)

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

If you have ever attempted to play defense on team 16's wicked swerve drive, them you will realize how useful it is, especially in this game. the ability to orient yourself to the ball is great, where as a tank drive robot has to turn, the swerve allows them to just scoot over. But it also depends on your design plans for the game, I know a team that did swerve last year, and could've done it this year, decided to go with a design that worked for them but was heavy so they decided not to use it. Everything is custom to your team in a sense, what works for our team, may not work for another.

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

Its interesting to look back and see who used swerve this year.

The Swerve list:
16
368
1717
2067
2481
2517
2936

I might be missing a few teams...

Re: Who is using swerve for aerial assist and why
 

2451, Pwnage from IL has a very nice swerve...won Midwest with it.