[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by CENTURION

Hi there! So our team is making plans to build a robot for demonstration purposes, and one of the ideas we are playing with is swerve drive. We have never actually built a swerve system before, so I realize it will probably take some time to work out the kinks, but it sounds like fun!

Anyway, one big question I have is: Could a stepper motor (or servo motor, I've heard it both ways) be used to handle the rotation of the wheel modules, instead of an FP/CIM/Window Motor and a potentiometer?

I realize that it couldn't be used in competition (unless the rules on motors change), but since this is a demo bot, that won't be a problem.

As others have mentioned a servo motor and stepper motor are not interchangeable terms, but just to clarify: a servo motor has positional feedback sensors and a control loop to maintain a specific position, a stepper motor has no positional feedback but rather moves in controlled increments.

When you attach a potentiometer or an encoder (or...) to any motor system and then control its position with a control loop it becomes a servo.

In 2002 (if memory serves) my team used hobby servos and hobby motors to make a demo serve-drive robot with the Edu-Robot system supplied with the KOP that year. If you want something full-size you can probably find industrial servos that will do the job out of the box. If you're looking to gain relevant FIRST experience (which is always good) I would definitely go with window motors and potentiometer feedback with a custom control loop.