[Conor Ryan]

Mechanically, a good swerve design is a good design. Teams that have gone through numerous iterations probably have it figured out better than most. Personally, I would love to see a 3 wheel swerve design with two cims driving each wheel, I'm not convinced the swerves we have seen so far are as fast as some of the tank bots. Additionally, I doubt a shifter gives much of an advantage to a swerve unless you are playing overdrive. 67 did an awesome 3 wheel swerve in 05, and I think that was the most dominant robot they have built to date.

I believe, the best swerve probably take their advantages from the controls that are engineered into the design. It goes above just having the right sensors, but having the correct algorithms to make driving intuitive and easy. Field oriented drive, with the ability to make the robot do what you want when you want is the hallmark of a well controlled swerve. Anyone have suggestions of teams that did this well? I know 16 and 111 did a lot of controls development to allow their drive teams to get the results they wanted, but I can't really comment on specifics.

I think we are just touching the tip of the iceberg with what can be done with the controls, the revised CAN system will really open up possibilities with finer control, and even make an auto shifting 2 speed shifter simple to implement.