One of the easiest things to do to keep a swerve drive easy to work on, is have the sprockets for the module drive on the outside of the module casing.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/31077
That is the design we used in 2008, and i'm betting you saw that module in Colorado.
By moving the sprockets to the outside you can make the module much easier to work on, yet keep the overall package quite small.
Anyone can make a huge swerve module thats easy to work on, when you get good you can made tiny ones that are even easier to work on. And when you get really good, you never have to work on it lol.
(08 swerves track record, 1 fix after Chicago, Milwaukee, Colorado, Champs, then finally IRI where i had to spend 5 min and it was back in full form.)