pic: QC Elite 2008
 

And yes, that is duct tape on the wheels.... When we made them, they used duct tape to hold the tread to the wheels while they assembled them, and we decided not to take it off till ship.

Re: pic: QC Elite 2008
 

What tires are you using on the swerve.

Re: pic: QC Elite 2008
 

The wheels were custom made by us out of some aluminum pipe, end plates, and conveyor belting. We did some prototyping on last year's robot and they work pretty good! They somewhat resemble the IFI traction wheels, but have some pretty noticeable differences. I probably spent close to 48 hours total on the lathe working on parts for the drive this season. It was built upon last year's system of crab and coordinated (articulated) steering which was accomplished by chaining the front pair of wheels together and the back wheels in a seperate manner. This year it gives us a total of 4 modes we can use to steer: crab, coordinated, front or rear wheel only (car style), and good old skid (never will be used).
See her in action at midwest next week, and West Michigan, along with our new arm controller which controls the arm about as naturally as you can get....
Malhon

Re: pic: QC Elite 2008
 

So it did get finished... :ahh:

It looks better than I thought it would have looked after Ed left... It looks unstable, though. I wish it had been at the mall, I really wanted to see it.

Re: pic: QC Elite 2008
 

Don't worry about stability Budda. We did plenty of testing and it isn't top heavy whatsoever. Dick Hoexter took over for Ed, and really helped design a tough machine.
Malhon