The inertia measurement method described here is similar to the one used in many motor labs, including mine. The U. of Colorado instructional lab procedure cited is also similar to the one taught at most universities, although I recall it was a Physics lab when I was at Georgia Tech.
A simple calculation of rotor inertia using standard formulae would be useful to compare against the experimental results. Kollmorgen still supports a nice tool for that:
link
I think the influence of motor rotor moment of inertia on limiting FRC robot drive train acceleration is very small compared to the mass of the robot. In round numbers, the FRC robot with 4 CIMs can reach ~10 ft/sec in about one second if there is no counter force. The CIM motor can reach full speed much faster than that, accelerating only its own rotor inertia -- might take 5 msec or so. I hope Ether is following this. I think he posted on a closely related topic a while back.
__________________
Richard Wallace
Mentor since 2011 for FRC 3620 Average Joes (St. Joseph, Michigan)
Mentor 2002-10 for FRC 931 Perpetual Chaos (St. Louis, Missouri)
since 2003
I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
(Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97)