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Unread 25-11-2012, 22:32
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Re: Be afraid... Be VERY Afraid

I'm going to guess that part of it is weight reduction. It looks like it could be made very light.

It also looks very compact.

One thing that makes it unique is that this allows for both independent wheel drive AND two speeds/torques w/o the extreme cost/weight/space penalty that would result from one using 4 AM2/Supershifters. Even compared to using 4 dewalts (not as tall but much longer in the wheel axis), it looks very space efficient.

It also looks like it is meant to be mounted through a hole in a sheet metal base/pan. Perhaps even a sheet of plywood or other flat material. Maybe this is to simplify frame design? (Just a pan with 4 wheel holes?)

Or maybe it could be mounted in a lazy susan (the missing part mentioned) and used as a crab module? There have been 2 speed crab drives before (I know 1625's done it) but they all used non-independent drive systems (1625 used two drive shafts with miter gears to drive 6 wheels, 3 per shaft).

Another aspect I see is that the Cim is off center. Perhaps some sort of a counterweight?

Last, Perhaps another benefit of the design is that if you tossed a tread on the wheel (if it had such a tread), you'd already have a spare wheel you could toss in. Then again, this "automated spare tire" effect is also
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DISCLAIMER: Any opinions/comments posted are solely my personal opinion and does not reflect the views/opinions of FIRST, IndianaFIRST, or any other organization.