VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2VX6vitq5s

in the off season we experiment with different drive train and other ways to improve our robot for the off-season events so let me know what you think

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

What kind of drive is that? Looks cool.

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

Looks neat! I take that it is 4 omnis with one perpendicular in the middle making it a 5 wheel robot or is it some other configuration?

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

I love the maneuverability. Could you give some more details on the drive train please?

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

I can't see anything, well, I think that there is a more efficient one out there some where

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

it looks like a 6 wheel omni drive, basically a tank drive with omni wheels, then 2 other omni wheels facing the other direction on the ends, looks neat.

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

That's what I think too

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

yes it is a six wheel drive
4 wheel tank drive (onmis) run by andymark supershifters
2 onmis perpindicual to the tank drive run by a cim motor in a banebot end
the straight forward and back were runnign a little slow but is now fixed to where it runs faster then it did in the video

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

Cool concept!

A few tips. When running omnis, you really won't need shifters. Since pushing is mostly a futile effort, it would save some weight to "downgrade" to Toughboxes. You can still go plenty fast with only one gear ratio.

I love how easy it looks to make sliding drivetrains do cool maneuvers like that. It seems so agile...

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

This "concept" is actually one that is has taken on a lot of use in VEX Robotics. In fact, this year we had two teams run this concept, and teams 148/217 also used this in their nona drive.

Nice implementation. Probably one of the more efficient multi-directional systems. But once again, you're not going to be putting up much of a struggle when it comes to defense.

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

what exactly is nona-drive? I've heard a lot about it

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

Same can be said about mecanum drives, yet people seem to love putting those on their robots...

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

Nona-drive is a 9 wheeled robot 5 omni wheels 4 "treaded" wheels. There is an omni wheel in the center of the robot that runs perpendicular with the rest of the wheels, then at each of the corners there is a "pivoting system" that lifts the treaded wheels off the ground so the omni wheel in the center of the robot will then be able to drive the robot on its axis.

Thats my basic shake down about the concept.

Andrew

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

The key advantage for us with the mecanum wheels was the speed and manuverability. I did not notice us being pushed around much but it could be that our drivers avoided the pushing matches. I did see that we were consistantly able to get to balls quicker than most and move them into the offensive zone or score.

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

exactly why i put this drive train together i wanted a high manueverable robot and put the super shifters on there for some control in low gear with steering but still have the option to get where i need to in a hurry

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

Any idea where we could find some pics or something? I'm intrigued!
Tried some google searches, couldn't find anything though...

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

This was the drive system that 148 and 217 developed and implemented this year.

You should check out this thread.

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

JVN also included some CAD renders of their (148's) robot in the build diary he made this year.

--Ryan

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

Very well implemented, though I'd consider game-by-game whether you really need supershifters. Something lighter, depending on your ratio. We've put shifters on robots with omnis, but not often (or at least not wisely) and only after considering our exact strategy. You won't be pushing.

I'd also think hard about exactly how you--or rather, your drivers--want to control it. Consider it, design it, code, test it, and then test it again. And again... I've seen teams (ours included), regardless of programmer skill, have serious problems in this area with such agile drivetrains. Leave time for driver practice!

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

While your point is still completely valid, I'd just like to add that one of the benefits of a slide drive is how easy it is to control with the most rudimentary of code. If I didn't know better, I'd make one myself! o.0

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

it was easy to control anyone who know how to play first person shooter games like halo or call of duty could drive it. the drive run off the same controls on an xbox 360 controller left joystick is forward, back, right, and left and the right joystick is spin left or right

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

Just out of curiosity, how do you have the controls set up? I've personally always disliked those funky Halo and Pacman type setups. Assuming a handheld controller I was sort of thinking along the lines of a standard tank drive for the 4 outer parellel wheels (for primary driving) and then using the L and R triggers to drive the 2 perpendicular wheels either Right or Left (for strafing). This way the robot is very easy to drive but still fully mobile in every direction using a combo of joysticks and L/R.

Anyways, really cool project, I personally prefer slide drives over mecanum wheels and this one looks very nice.

Edit: Answered above

Re: VIDEO: team 1528 drive train experiment
 

we run our controls from a xbox 360 controller and run it like halo, i do like how you explain yours with using the triggers for the straffe options whiich would prolly be a little easier especially in controlling because i have notice with the way we drive it with the halo drive that sometimes when just trying to drive straight if the joystick is a slight to the left i straffe left a bit the triggers could cut that down but i run the halo drive cuz i have played halo and call of duty so much i am use to running it that way but like the idea of using the triggers now time to implement some way to get of pushing power


thanks for looking at it :)