[Jim Zondag]

Joe,
In the testing that Isaac and I have done, both in simuation and on real chassis, we have found that there is a "scrappiness threshold' at about 1kW for 150lb GVW FIRST Robots. We did most of this work on a standard 6x6 dropcenter configuration chassis. Obviously the exact gear ratios and wheel placement play into this, but there is a big noticeable difference in the dynamic performance of the machine when you drop below about 1kW, simply due to the Power to Weight ratio. Hence most teams will use a quad CIM drive which keeps you comfortably above this zone, even with a pretty inefficient execution. Gone are the days of 2WD caster machines we all built in the 90s.

The CIMs have been great additions to the FIRST KOP, and the selection of off the shelf parts available from AndyMark, VexPro and Banebots make many of the difficult, precision things that only the elite teams could once do available to all teams.