There are a lot more swerve threads this year than I remember in recent years and there is a lot of debate about the various designs. I would like to hear from the swerve veterans and the many designers: what are you trying to optimize with your design? I ask this as someone who loves design optimization, but knows very little about building a practical swerve module.
I see a lot of discussion around module weight and it appears under 8 pounds per module is “good”. Quickly comparing with a 6WD COTS WCD at Vex I get 22.01 pounds without fasteners (see below) compared with about 32 pounds for a swerve. This is actually quite amazing considering a swerve has 4 additional turning motors and their gearboxes!
I realize that swerve gives some pretty cool maneuvering capability for the ~10 extra pounds. And yes, I know that there is significant effort into learning to code and drive a swerve correctly on top of the added difficulty of custom machining 5+ modules during the build season.
As I said above – I want to know what the general focus is on with the many new swerve designs. What are you trying to optimize? Some ideas from the various posts (in no particular order):
- Weight of module
- Size of module
- CG of module
- Ability to rotate infinitely (i.e. not constrained by wires twisting)
- Gear Reduction available
- Two Speed modules
- More?
I am also interested to know at what point could swerve become COTS (yes I know about the Revolution Pro)? What would the price need to be? What would the weight/size/etc have to be for the non-diehard teams to get them?
-matto-
6WD COTS WCD- 2X 2 CIM Ball Shifter (2.50 lb ea)
- 4X CIM Motors (2.80 lb ea)
- 6X Versa Blocks (0.22 lb ea)
- 6X Colson Performa 4"x1.5" 1/2" Hex bore (0.53 lb ea)
- 8X 9mm 18T pulley (0.03 lb ea)
- 4X 9mm 160T belt (0.07 lb ea)
- 1X 36” 1/2 Hex Stock (0.79 lb ea)