Quote:
Originally Posted by GeeTwo
I haven't seriously tried to wrap my brain around a swerve drive with pair-coupled wheel speeds and fully independent steering, but I have done a bit of thinking about the transmission.
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Update on this point: I haven't done any formal knematics with this yet, but if you're going to couple wheel speeds while having independent swerve steering, there does not appear to be significant benefit to having two different drive trains each powering two wheels compared to having one system that serves all wheels. A single drive train system with wheels in a rectangular or equilateral triangular configuration can translate in any direction or spin around its geometric center with no slippage. It can be steered in directed motion similarly to an automobile (or even a fire truck). It can also rotate around any point which is not too near a wheel with minor wheel slippage. It is also amenable to use with a 3-wheel drive system, which would reduce cost, weight, and number of parts compared to a 4 wheel system. The 3 wheel system would also have fewer places to avoid trying to rotate about, and wider avenues to transition the center of rotation from infinity to the center.