[JesseK]

Let's think, for practicality's sake, about 'what IF' AndyMark DID make a generic swerve module. Let's think for just a second about the risk involved. AM put their shifting transmissions out, and for a time they sold well...that is, until 2009 rolled around. AM learned this year just what kind of impact niche products have on their ability to roll through inventory in FRC. How many teams bought Super Shifters this year? What if FIRST releases a game in the next couple of years that negates any need for a crab/swerve module in the future? The risks are great, whereas their efforts could be spent in other areas that FRC teams need. I for one am a fan of the hex bearing they recently put out ... such a small innovation that opens up a world of design for custom gearboxes built from COTS AM parts.

Besides, teams need to be able to create the partnerships necessary to manufacture something as complicated as a crab/swerve module. If you venture out, 30, 50 miles even just to find the right CNC'er or Waterjet facility then that's a relationship you'll use in other aspects of your bot -- not just the drive train. I say this because recently found a guy with a waterjet who's 20 miles away who we will negotiate a deal with for next year's bot. It took years to find him, but we finally did. Had we been given the items we needed for that particular robot piece this year, we wouldn't have even bothered looking for that relationship.

Finally, upon attending 118's crab module conference in Atlanta, then seeing the multitude of very different designs that were in Atlanta (111, 118, 88, 548, 1885, and several others), one would have realized that there is NO one-size-fits-all solution to crab design. There are too many design parameters, too many external systems effected, and on top of that many decisions have to be made for control that also effect how the crab module is designed in the first place.