[Racer26]

1075 did a very "out there" drive as far as FIRST goes in 2003, our rookie year.

Anyone that was at the Canadian Regional that year (now Greater Toronto Regional, as there are now TWO Canadian Regionals!) would have seen it. I think Delphi E.L.I.T.E (FRC#48) gave us an award for most unique drivetrain.

It functioned a bit like a tricycle, we had two undriven wheels at the back of the robot, and an 8" wide track driven by the two CIMs and two Bosch drill motors they used to give us. Then we swung the whole track unit about a point at the front of it. We used a potentiometer on the pivot to track its location, and our autonomous mode was able to climb the ramp very quickly.

I remember that we had a match against one team whose autonomous mode never left the starting box, but instead extended an arm up and over the plexiglass border to reach the pyramid of boxes. Our drivetrain allowing us to turn at full speed got our whole robot to the boxes before they could get their arm there.

This particular unit was plagued by a problem with our inexperience at building drivetrains. It used a miter gear, but we didnt support it closely enough, and under load they were skipping teeth and shredding the gear. We finished 2nd in the competition, mainly because the gear was so shredded we couldn't even climb the ramp.