Quote:
Originally Posted by Gdeaver
We have gone to the module form. If any of our pods fail or are suspect of not performing properly, they are immediately swapped out. Our pit crew can swap a module in < 5 minutes. Repair later. 4 bolts and 3 wire connectors and it's out. How fast can a mech, West coast drive or any other drive be repaired? I have watched teams struggle with repairs to other drives and like the repair ability of the swerve Modules. For us the goal of our team is not to win but, to mentor and teach our students to work together and accomplish hard technology tasks. 4 driven wheel, independently steered swerve is a good one to teach this. Yes the kids are pushed hard to do this each year. The pay back in their growth is great. Have to say we started to win more after the switch to swerve. To do swerve forced us to develop processes and a mindset to do it. The same processes have help with other aspects of the team. Swerve is hard but for us the pay back has been great.
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The swapping is a great point. Have you ever had a module fail in a match? How does yours drive with 1 dead module?
I agree that a swerve is a good way to teach many important skills. I have never been willing to take the risk of doing swerve during the season (if it fails then you're really in trouble if you can't drive forward!). What was it like the first year you tried swerve? Did you do a trial run during the off season?