Quote:
Originally Posted by Ether
Brandon, could you elaborate a little on some of those reasons?
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Sure-
-We are probably at a spot now where mechanically we would feel comfortable with the system, however the first couple of tries definitely required some improvements before being implemented on the field.
-Part of those mechanical improvements were getting the weight down. We were at a decent spot weight wise with our initial design, but have been unable to get much more weight out of it. We're considering much different and new designs which would help with that, but then the mechanical iteration kind of goes backwards a little bit.
-Probably the biggest factor is the software development effort. We are just not at the point where the swerve is performing how we want it to. It requires a ton of driver practice to reach a level of performance that can be matched with just a small amount of practice on a 6WD or 8WD. We want to develop as intuitive a system as possible.
To go along with this, due to the nature of the mentors on our team (mainly college students), the engineering support is constantly in flux. While always solid, its ever changing. We really need someone to make this project their baby and help guide it to completion. We have unfortunately been unable to do that. Knowing it will probably take a couple of seasons to get right, we want to make sure we have a steady foundation before we start building on it.
-The last major factor has probably been timing. In 2010, we built a robot that very few teams attempted to build. Like 469, we were designed to recycle balls from the roll-in ramp by rolling them down our robot, off the bump, and into the goal. Being way to overly ambitious, we wanted to do all of this while hanging from the bar. Due to a number of reasons, the robot worked, but never as well as we wanted it to, or near the level of 469.
Going into last season we didn't want to have another "down" year, so we tried to play it "safe". If we went the swerve, and didn't get desirable results we would've had back to back seasons where our ambition got in the way of our success. We had an extremely successful year last year, so I believe the decision was right.
It is yet to be seen what will happen this upcoming season, but hopefully that gives you a window into some of our decision making.