It is possible to obtain outside funding for the production of a swerve drive. This year we got a grant just for the production of ours.
2471 has an amazing swerve drive that is both light and cheap to manufacture. Making the top out of one piece of extrusion is a great idea. The gear box they use for steering is much cheaper then any thing else i have seen and worked amazingly.
Team 1640 has a lot of info about the history of their drive train. Also a great team who does well with it.
Team 16 has a legendary swerve drive. They don't use a Co-axel design but acts as if they were by using slip rings.
We ran a swerve drive this year as well. We used a cool concept that a student from 2471 thought of(the long tube with the drive belt running around the steering motor). Along with a modified version of 1640's bottom pivot/yoke. We redesigned how to build it to make as many parts of it manual machined on a mill/layth.
