[waitwhat?]

Our team has never used shfiters in the past. That being said, we have focused a lot of our driving in the past two years on defensive strategies. Keep in mind the decision to be primarily defense was probably the first design decision that the team made. From there the desired gear reduction was picked.

We have found that if you pick the right gear ratios, you can be just as maneuverable and still pack a solid amount of pushing power.

Also, we have been playing around with the idea of "shifting" in a differant respect. Rather than shifting gears in the transmission, last year, we implemented a dynamic lift into our drive system. The robot was an 8 wheel drive, with the center four wheels dropped 1/8". This yielded a very agile drive base. But when we got into a bumper to bumper situation with another bot (which happened frequently, as we were a defensive machine) our driver could hold a thumb button, dropping the outter four wheels 1/8" giving us a true and level 8 wheel drive. Once the thumb button was released, the outter wheels would lift back to their home positions automatically.

Although this probably doesn't provide as much pushing power as shifting to a lwoer gear, it did give us better traction and would stop a spin out from happening instantaneously. The drops were actuated via two PG71's and two one inch sections of threaded rod.

Just another method of making your drivetrain more dynamic with out integrateing gear shifters.