Quote:
Originally Posted by Ginger Power
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?
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The big thing is, even when you know how to do swerve drive and you've perfected it in the offseason, it still takes more time, resources, and effort than tank drive. The drive still won't work better than tank without great code running consistently, and you are robbing efforts from your manipulator development, drive practice, etc. to do swerve.
Basically, you have to decide that swerve is such a competitive advantage that it is worth putting less polish into other systems of your robot. In most games, it just hasn't been. There hasn't been a game where optimized omnidirectional drivetrains (swerve, mecanum, or otherwise) are strictly better than tank drives, other than 2015. And in 2015, mecanum drive built and programmed well could achieve what swerve drives could without as much mechanical or software complexity.
(note for those following along at home: this is a post where I'm arguing mecanum drivetrains were the best choice for a particular game. Hell hasn't frozen over, has it?)