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Unread 13-04-2010, 10:52
ajlapp ajlapp is offline
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AKA: Anthony Lapp
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Re: Mecanum or Swerve?

Quote:
Swerve Drives are going to become more and more common in FRC. One of the biggest issues with Swerve Drives is that they're difficult to design and manufacture, and many teams could spend a whole build season doing this and not get it right. But, now that two types of swerve module are available as COTS items these two issues are almost non-existent, or no more so prevalent than in a Mecanum or Holonomic Drive.
This is the reason we wanted to introduce commercial swerve components to the market. There is always lots of discussion amongst the community about how to keep FIRST competitive....

I disagree with making the game easier or artificially leveling the playing field through other means.

I'd much rather see a large portion of teams building high quality robots by using off-the-shelf items when necessary to bolster an area of their team where they may not have the expertise.

That said, swerve is tough to pull off even if you start with pre-made transmissions. Cyber Blue is hosting a swerve discussion this week in Atlanta about the months they spent leading up to competition developing the technology.
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