Quote:
Originally Posted by fargus111111111
1. Does your team frequently use the kit base?
2 a. If yes to q1. Do you modify it and if so how?
2 b. If no to q1. How do you reliably develop a drive base to be quickly usable for on field testing, have you formed your own kind of "kit base" that is the origins of each year's design?
I ask because I am interested in encouraging my team to work on developing other types of drive trains in the off season but I'm not sure if it is worth it because of our very good experiences with the kit base.
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You'll have to define "other types of drive trains." There is a big leap between kit bot and 4 wheel independent steering.
Here's our approach.
We have always used skid steer instead of investing resources in omni-directional drive trains. I don't see that changing for 2017. We may switch to the kit bot or VexPro Versaframe to speed up construction.
We used kit base components for our 2013 robot, but had to build our own frame for packaging reasons. Every other year we have built a west coast style skid steer drive train. We do this primarily because we can, not because it is better than a kit base.
In either case, there really is no drive train "development" for us. A west coast style drive train is part of the tube and gusset construction technique we use for the base and scoring section frame. Since we have the milling machines to manufacture our own tubes, it is very easy to customize the wheel spacing and frame dimensions to suit the game. It did take time to develop bearing mounts and gearbox mounting systems. There are now COTS solutions readily available for most of these needs.
David