[Bryce2471]

Originally Posted by Kevin Ainsworth

Why did someone design a car when they had horses?
Why do people build 1000 horsepower cars for the street?
Why did someone design an electric powered car when there are gasoline engines?

Don't stifle creativity.
This competition to me is a way to teach the students about engineering.
Through success and failure, the journey is what's important.
If you use the same drivetrain design year after year, what are you teaching about designing a drivetrain?
Most will argue they put the time into the mechanisms for that years game and that is a valid argument.
Some are in it to win at any cost and some are in for the fun of it.

I agree swerves are not necessary to win, thus far.
Pnwage has discussed this at length and we are not a "Swerve Team".
It helped us seat first and win our first regional last year but it had it's negatives at Champs and at IRI.
A four CIM swerve does not accelerate like a six CIM tank.
The extra mobility doesn't help if the other team can get there quicker.
A single speed swerve does not get out of a pushing match if it's geared for speed, and it doesn't move quickly if it's geared for pushing matches.

Our swerve is now fully Field Centric, with only a few degrees of drift over an entire match. My 9 year old jumped on the sticks and drove it to 90% its capacity the first time he drove it. Now anyone can be your driver, not just the best "driver". Can you say that about a tank drive?
Now if we could just get the same acceleration as the 6 CIM tanks...
Ah, 8 mini-cims...

+1

Although I'm not sure that 8 mini-CIMs is the best solution to your acceleration deficit.

Building swerves for the first time last year was a good decision for my team. Even though it barely helped us in competition that year, it stretched our abilities and our knowledge. (It also helped my best friend get into MIT, and helped me win the Dean's List Award)