[Travis Covington]

Originally Posted by squirrel

I still haven't figured out what the advantages are to having a lightweight drive transmission, though.

The removal of weight from any system is an advantage. It gives you the ability to use that weight elsewhere, for another system, or simply as a buffer when you add things you hadn't planned to add. The argument I have heard is, "When you remove 4lbs from the base, you are just gonna end up adding it to the arm!!" Wrong!! You cant have that mentality when you design things... any weight savings from any system is an advantage. Hell, if we wanted to, we could add a 4lb block of lead to the VERY bottom of the robot, below where the CG of all the material that we removed was. Thats a pretty obvious advantage right there, and we havent changed the weight of any other system on the robot. Also, the removal of weight from rotating parts increases efficiency and acceleration. Just like lighter weight flywheels help your engine rev faster, lighter gears enable your motors to start and stop more quickly.