Quote:
Originally Posted by jbsmithtx
Saves motors, time, and is incredibly easy to use. If you want a truly great swerve, you have to use 8 motors, which is a lot of the motors you have and use. An octocanum or butterfly is just as maneuverable and only uses 4 motors, but there is no pushing power to the side. Why is pushing power on the side needed? And as said, too much easier. Swerve is cool but fairly wasteful.
Back to the original post, as stated there is no perfect or best drivetrain. Discuss what is needed (maneuverability for an intricate field, or pushing power for obstacles). My personal favorite is octocanum, because it's easier to design and make and maintain. And it covers all your bases (it's two drivetrains!)
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Motors this year don't really matter. Honestly my view on it is you go all the way or you stay with the basics. We like our WCD because it is the fastest or one of the fastest in machining and assembly. This gives us more time to program, iterate, and practice(even more than butterfly or octocanum). For 99.9% of teams this is going to boost their performance more the the "extra" maneuverability will.
In response to runneals your points for 1 and 2 can be wrong. I've seen 1717 win the LA regionals in 2012 running through elims on 3 modules working(they replaced for the finals). Also with a fully independent module it is quite easy to make a module replace with the removal of 3 screws. Not quite as little as your butterfly but still very little.