Quote:
Originally Posted by sanddrag
In part, yes.
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Your team made a very impressive practice bot in 2014, I found pictures of it.
So if the swerve drive contributed to the decision not to build a practice robot that would mean there was less opportunity to practice and the build was finished pretty close to bag and tag.
I guess the question that would raise, is the same that you've previously hinted at, did the swerve drive deliver sufficient advantage to the human operators or might the time and resources have been better directed at more simplistic drive train that the drivers could have had more quickly and perhaps had a practice robot as well?
Regardless it is an impressive achievement.
When we tried the swerve we also did not build a practice robot. We bought the modules but we weren't able to get the drive train until the last 3 days. Plus we could not afford enough modules to make a practice robot.
The first time we really drove was on the field. I have always speculated that if we had gotten it all together a little sooner and if we had sorted out the programming challenges a bit sooner: that we might have been more successful.
Instead the drivers literally got the short end of the stick. A hard to control robot they had very little experience with and it was hard to make it go straight. Plus that was the year with the opening you could drive through in the field separator. Imagine threading a needle blind with something unpredictable.