pic: Lego Swerve Drive
 

does anyone else think this is impressive for a custom design?

Yes, it is quite nice and amazing :yikes:. I showed it to our Lego League coach and she was muchly impressed. Any chance we could get some more details about it(ie what pieces used, some pictures that show a little better how it’s constructed)?

I was planning on creating some building instructions for personal use... When they are finished I'll be sure to get them to you, or if anyone else is interested I could post it here for all to see.

I will also be sure to post an update when I finish my full four wheel lego swerve.

just a quick question....where did you get those big gears that you use to turn the drive modules?

I have completed the first two building steps for the lego swerve drive for all those who are interested.


step #1

step #2

Thanks for those instructions! Now that I’m finally done with finals, I built everything you included in the instructions and it worked really well. I also added some other things from your pictures, but I’m still having a little trouble understanding exactly how the base and the wheel modules go together. I see that on the outside they’re joined by the blue support bar things, and I see that they’re somehow controlled by the bevel gear thing, but I’m still not quite getting how it all goes together. I also noticed that on the wheel modules the pair of gears that mesh next to the wheel don’t turn. Now is that supposed to happen or did I do something wrong? Finally, what sort of issues did you encounter using the rotation sensor with the joystick? I’ve been playing around with the sensor trying to get some sort of prototype to work with but I keep getting the same 4 readings. For example, I’ll have it straight and it’ll be zero(makes sense). Then I move it back and I’ll get like 39 then 80 then 100, and then when I move it forewords(from the zero) I’ll get 100 then 80 then 39. Is there some good way to differentiate between these in the programming? Or did you somehow limit the motion so you only got the 39 and the 100 so you didn’t have to deal with the overlap?

Sorry for all the questions, I’m kinda new to this. And thanks again for sharing your plans!

Good Job Man!
 

Thats Great ,And weird too because i lad the exact some idea. I hope your team does build it because i would Love some collaboration While Building ours (if we do that is)

I have the next set of steps ready for all those who are building along.


Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

SarahB

I’m sorry I took so long with the next few steps, I got I bit tied up in other things. Steps #3 - #5 should clear up most of your questions.

For the gears not turning on the wheel module you may want to look at step #1 again, you must have done something wrong.

And last im not quite sure what you are talking about with the joystick. On mine when the stick is vertical the sensor reads 0. Pushing it forward it reads 1 - 2, pulling it backwards it reads -1 - -2.

What version of the RCX are you using and what software are you using to program it?

Yeah, the new instructions helped a lot. On the issue of the wheel modules not working, I was using the wrong piece so the axel was going through the part that doesn’t let the axel turn, thus no gears moving. The rotation sensor is still causing me trouble. I thought the problem was that I was using outdated firmware, but I downloaded the new version from this years kit and its even worse. It just sort of randomly switches between 406 and 408. I haven’t even started trying to program it yet, I was just using the view feature on the RCX so I’d have some idea of the values I was working with.

Wow
 

That's awesome man. Great job, I have to say that really makes e excited to see what people are already thinking of for next year, so early. Seems like this past year just ended, and working on that so soon. Sounds like a blast guys, that's some impressive lego working, wish I had a mindstorms kit to try to build one. Tell me how they turn out, and send me a private message when the instructions are all complete, if they aren't already. Maybe one of our instructor's will want to make one.

once again, awesome

I would like to see this done on the edu-robot

Funny that you should say that. I’m currently working on plans and gathering parts to build a swerve drive that will be controlled with the edu robot controller.