Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffy
I also have a few questions about how you describe a few of the drivetrains. (note: I am not trying to criticise, I'm trying to learn.)
What makes mecanum "very stable at high speeds"? Ussualy, mecanum wheels are not round, seems like that would make them unstable to me.
As per the final tables at the end of your presentation, I'm curious what you might have been thinking.
What makes a swerve slow? I realize you talk about more internal friction, but many times, a swerve is done with fewer gear stages than a comparable 6wd or mecanum.
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1. The Mecanum wheels were considered more stable at high speed, because when they sustain and impact from a wall or other player the wheel tend to drift. Skid drive and higher friction/torque drive trains tend not to slip and instead create higher lateral load which make a robot more likely to tip, or sustain damage.
2. Swerve drive I will be honest, is something I am very unfamiliar with. I have never built a swerve system or had the chance to see one up close. I believe my thinking on this was that the swerve would require more of the drive motors to be used for steering, and would then have less available wattage, and that the linkages to transfer the swerve power had difficulties with seizing and clogging. This was based primarily on observation of the Haywire Robotics 2010 robot which was noticeably slower than other robots, when it used swerve drive.
The reason we find all possible solutions first is because it doesn't matter how objectively you can observe an idea, unless you can come up with the right idea in the first place. For instance take the arm made by team 842:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=93079
The basic concept for their arm using the stationary gear linkage, was never considered for our team before hand, because we never thought to use something like that on a FIRST robot. Unless you can see all of the options, how do you know you are picking the right one?
I hope this helps and clarifies people's readings, I really more wanted to see how other teams handled the design process, since there does not seem to be a lot of material out there.
Thanks a bunch for the support!