I'm not trying to bash your drive nor am I against the concept of a gear drive. If we had the time and the drive to do something different I'm sure my team would prototype one as well. Just thought I would share some info about belts.
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Originally Posted by AllenGregoryIV
I can't tell you why you should like it but I can tell you what's attractive to us.
No tensioning or ever throwing belts/chains
A good drivetrain has a great tensioning system and never throws belts or chains. I am not confident enough that we can build a drivetrain that will meet those requirements. The gear drive solves that problem.
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If you can manufacture a drivetrain with enough precision for a functional gear drive, you have more than enough precision to make a dead spaced belt drive, which does not need tensioners.
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No need for access from the top of the box
We now have the entire width of the robot for our game playing elements. We can cover the entire top of the drive train and not worry about having to ever reach in a fix a chain or belt. We can replace wheels extremely quickly with just one bolt each. This also might be marginally safer as it is harder to get a finger or drop something in the drive.
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A properly designed belt drivetrain should never need any maintenance. For the past three seasons we have not touched a drive belt since week 4-5 of build season (unless we had to remove an axle for another reason, but that doesn't really count). So this same advantage can apply to belts as well.