Well this has been on the to do list for 3309 far too long. We should have done this a long time ago: build a reliable 2-speed tank drive.
We have done mecanums two years in a row. They are fun to drive but we have grown weary of their traction and pushing force compromises. We would have done tank this year if we were not stretch so thin in terms of CAD resources. We cut a corner and did a drivetrain we did last year so we could devote more resources to our shooter.
What we should have done was work on a really good tank drive in fall. There are so many ways one can go about this.
It could be team 1114 kitbot on steroids:
http://www.simbotics.org/files/pdf/1...structions.pdf
Or: upgrade it to have a two speed gearbox.
or: we have been looking at team 33's and 973's CAD models of west coast drive.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2515
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/2567
What I hope achieve is that is allows my students to have practice at CAD, expands our knowledge bade, gives us a platform to test with and finally gives us a proven design solution that we could us for next years game.
Our hope is that our final product will allow us to test gyro code for steering, autonomous dead reckoning and various PID controls.
I hope this gives you some ideas for the summer.