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Originally Posted by tuXguy15
We just want to try something new so we have some experience during off season instead of fulling around with it during build. I think its safe to say that my team has just about mastered 4 - 6 Wheel Drive. We want to try new stuff to see if we like it and want to use it in a future year instead of the same 4 - 6 drive every year. We just don't know which one to pick to start with.
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I'll echo what everyone else has said about making sure your 6wd is perfect. It's important to have a strong "default" drive system. However, I don't think you came here to read a couple of posts that are not helping you make a decision like you wanted! However, you could still experiment by designing or iterating your own gearbox (or other improvements to a standard Tank system)! My team is currently examining this possibility because we recently acquired new machining resources and it would be a cool project and a valuable resource to have in our pocket.
Hm... Well, Mecanum drive is a good one to prototype during the off-season. It's a challenging exercise for your programming and mechanical subteams (which is a reward of itself). It also opens the door for Octocanum drive in the future (which I've wanted to look into for a while). The wheels and gearboxes are going to be kinda costly but other than that it can be mounted to a standard C-Channel chassis, which is nice if you don't want to mess with a special setup system.
I've wanted to check out Butterfly drive for a bit as well (if you were unaware, Butterfly drive is Octocanum but which omni wheels instead of Mecanum wheels, it has the added maneuverability without the strafing and cost of the wheels). It's a fancy system that will also challenge your mechanical and electrical teams, as the development of a good, reliable wheel-switching system could be a bit of work. This is also a fairly new drive system, so there is a lot of experimentation that can go into it because not much has been done with it already. The machining of the modules might require resources beyond the standard team's availability though, so research into a design is required beforehand.
If you don't want to venture too far away from your Tank drive systems, Drop Center 8 Wheel Drive has been becoming increasingly popular. I'm not sure what the strict advantages are to it over 6wd, but there are some teams now (some of whom are very high-leveled) who are swearing by it now, so there must be something that makes it so desiring.
It all depends on what kind of drive train you want to have up your sleeve. If your team really just has an itch to play around with a drive train, then present a couple ideas to the team and see what sticks! You might find one that really interests all the people on your team. Just remember to consider cost, machining requirements, needed man-power, general complexity, and the support the FRC community can provide in the endeavor!
Looking forward to see what you guys come up with! Feel free to share if you make something cool!