[bharrison6]

Our victor 888's have done very well, no problems as of yet but we try not to abuse them and this would be likely if we allowed random people to test drive our robot, thus the reason I asked.

I guess I will post the main reason I am asking this question so that we can get some feedback about the idea. (I was going to keep it under wraps because I think this is a unique idea, but you guys are awesome helping us with this so maybe it can be of use to you).

We are looking at using a hybrid swerve/hi-traction drive. We would have two swerve pods that would be driving the robot at all times. The two high traction drives would lift up or drop down depending on what the driver needs. With this system the driver could drive the robot like a swerve drive to get the extra mobility, but when pushing power or high agility are needed the driver could drop down the high traction wheels and get the extra boost. This system would have a weight and power advantage over a traditional swerve drive because of two less steer motors and two less pods but would still give us the mobility of a swerve when needed.

We would use two large sim motors per swerve pod and two mini sim motors per high traction system for a total of 8 drive motors. (4 full time, 8 when high traction system is down). What we are worried about is what will happen when we try to push someone with all 8 motors. With the new PDB it sounds like we will have options for limiting our output but then is there any real point to having the extra motors? We also plan on trying to develop a gearing system so we have at least 2 gears which will help.

Anyone have any thoughts on this design? Has anyone tried it before? Will the 8 motors be too much? Should we drop it to 2 motors per pod and 1 motor per hi-traction system.

Thanks again for all the feedback!!!