It doesn't seem that anyone has directly answered your new questions so I will try
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Questions:
1) What are the advantages/ disadvantages do you see with this drive? (be honest no hard feelings if it is all disadvantages)
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The ability to corner the oppenents trailer is a definite advantage however you will have definite problems with turning and traction unless you make design modifications. Every wheel needs to powered.
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2) With the layout above, where would you put the wheels, which ones would be powered with this base layout?
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I like the layout and design, but it will make turning difficult. I would turn the design 90 degrees to make a wide robot. This will making turning easier because you have a larger lever arm to torque against while turning. Also a wide robot will be resisted more by inline friction and less by transverse friction when turning.
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3) How would you then get power to the 2 front wheels?
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I would turn chain from the rear wheel to the from wheels (assuming the rear wheels are directly driven) If the rear wheels are not directly driven then I would place the transmissions near the middle of the robot and rune chain to both the front and rear wheels. This does require you to devise a tension system, but that won't be too difficult. You can see our teams previous designs for chain tension or shoot me an email for more information.
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4) Is there another way to model this layout to have that U cutout, but still have a set of front wheels, that are powered?
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See the above--it's more than possible with a little chain and no design modifications.
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5) What drive train would be best for this layout? (ie: tank, swerve, omni, crab ect...)Any specific reasons to why, would be helpful.
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If you make your front wheels crab turning will be much more efficient. by turning your front wheels 90 degrees you will be able to turn on a dime--With this design I would still recommend you power your rear wheels independently to assist turning. This would make a killer design which could turn easily and maintain your design objectives. For this design I would use a CIM run through a custom gear box direct drive for each rear wheel. In the front I would use crab modules consisting of an upward CIM and a miter gear set up. Two FP motors would rotate the crap modules.
An interesting strategy with this (Although of questionable legality) would be to spin another robot into the wall using your superior turning ability effectively locking them in place.