Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginger Power
This thread has mostly felt like a referendum against swerve drives, which has been telling. Given my current situation and the feedback here, it definitely seems as though butterfly is a better option for our purposes.
Some have mentioned that both drivetrains are unnecessary/too complicated for FRC and that WCD/Kop drivetrain is the better option. The point was made that a simple tank drive will offer 95% of the performance for a fraction of the cost. While that may be true, why isn't it worth investing build season time to implement a more complex drivetrain that has been perfected in the offseason vs. a WCD or kop drivetrain?
|
The biggest problems I think teams face in implementing butterfly or swerve drives in season is a lack of testing pre-season, poor design choices, and a lack of good machine tools. I think octocanum can be done fairly well with a manual mill, but the design has to be very similar to what was done in the offseason to have a driving robot within a few days. IMO well-designed swerve drives are very rare, and often times teams do not have the machines to make them well.
Butterfly + strafe wheel takes up space in the center of the chassis, which is rarely available as well.
If you have the machines, the design experience, and the pre-season testing, I see no reason why you can't do swerve or butterfly/octocanum. Just make sure it actually benefits your strategy and/or driver before doing it!