Quote:
Originally Posted by Creator Mat
However, some members/mentors changed their minds (due to a vex holonomic a student built) feel that a Holonomic drive is the better way for us to go.
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Matt, I did not see the holonomic model in action - did you get to participate in testing of 4 wheel 45 degrees holonomic drive? Was it tested if it can go up the ramp? If so, did it have to be perfectly aligned to the frame? Would it high center on a ramp (scaled down to the appropriate size)?
I know that over the past two years you have put a lot of effort into your research and concepting of different drive systems. Many times more than any other student. I understand that you feel that we are ready to go swerve, and I agree that many top teams will decide to go in that direction. Swerve, if executed correctly may give an advantage in controlling the (sections of) field. However, as you mentioned, majority of our team is new to FRC. Regardless of which drive is chosen, I believe that all of the brainstorming, testing and analyzing that was done this week will benefit all that participated. If we would have decided on day one that we are going to use a specific drive train because the student who is the head of the design "did all the research and is an expert" makes a specific recommendation, there wouldn't be much of an opportunity for learning for the rest of the team. Selection of a drive system will play a significant factor in how well the robot performs in this year’s game, but it will not be the deciding factor. I expect to see robots with variety of drive systems perform well in the competition. I wouldn't be surprised to see a robot built on a kit bot chassis to be on a winning alliance in the regional. A robot that has a great ball controlling mechanism, can self align on the target, can adjust the shots based on distance and angle, can hang, has a team with lots of driving practice and good strategy etc. can easily overcome not having most optimum drive system (I am not implying that swerve is the optimum system for this game).
While managing any design project, the team needs to understand and leverage all other aspects: experience of the team, tools and materials available, monetary and talent resources, risks, advantages and tradeoffs of different design options, time required to build, test and optimize the design, fall back plan ... etc. etc.
I will likely not be involved in the decision making (will probably not be able to make it to school this weekend) but I still believe that whatever drive train is selected, we all have learned a lot during this evaluation process. I also believe that we are very fortunate to have great pool of talent, support from teachers, parents and mentors and we have good chance of performing well this year. If we happen to choose a less difficult drive train, we will use the time we gained to optimize on other aspect of the game.
Last, please remember Dean's homework for this year. It is not all about who wins or loses during the competition, but rather how much you and everyone else learned (and inspired others to learn) in the process.