Swerve??
 

Today me and my team were going back and forth about swerve drive it meets alot of our requirements. Some one said its hard to control and its jerky. We will be using the Wild swerve modules (if we do decide on it). To those swerve vets out there what do suggest to us?

Re: Swerve??
 

Have you any prior swerve experience?

If not, I'd recommend not trying it at this point in time. It's really difficult to get working in the 6 weeks if you haven't done it before. Mechanical parts are "easy", especially with the Wildswerve. Programming? I think you'd better go catch your programmers, they already fled at the thought of only six weeks to do the code for the swerve and the rest of the robot.:p

Re: Swerve??
 

Yeah the programming aspect of it is what makes it hard (it would require a lot of trial and error). I would suggest looking at an alternate design, unless you really feel like you can do it.

Re: Swerve??
 

Yes we have had prior experience with swerve. We would not be moving them all 4 with a different motor. We will use 1 motor to 2 modules.

Re: Swerve??
 

The kinematics of swerve are completely understood. The only trial and error would be adjusting tuning parameters, and perhaps trying different driver interfaces to see which works best for your drivers and this particular game.

Re: Swerve??
 

Programming wise... encapsulate a motor and a potentiometer with a PIDController(it's in WPILib) into some object. Now you have a re-usable servo-motor object that you can use everywhere (arm, kicker, swerve drive, turret, etc) and all you need to do is tell it where to go. Spending some time understanding how this works will help tremendously for years to come!

Re: Swerve??
 

If improperly implemented it can be jerky and (insert other negative adjectives here). But that is not an inherent quality of swerve drive.

What EricH said: Build Season is not the time to teach this aspect to yourselves.

Try this: Ask what capabilities you are trying to gain with a swerve drive, and brainstorm "other" ways of accomplishing those capabilities. Then pick the one you can reasonably implement.