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Unread 02-06-2015, 14:36
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Re: Swerve with a twist

Good summary Bob and you're son is extremely bright. The controls actually are fairly easy. Tracking errors are stabilizing instead of destabilizing. e.g. if one of the casters is off, the reaction forces due to the other casters push it in the right direction. We implemented this on a large system for the Navy. It had a 10,000 lb payload capacity and could position loads with sub mm accuracy. When we first powered it up, we didn't have the gains right on two of the drives. We drove it around for days and didn't notice.

One of the items I loved about our drive train was the double enveloping worm gear. We do a lot of printing and I've debated about trying to print the OCILOW drive with a complex worm drive. We had some kids design and print an OCILOW out last year but they used chains for the drive.