Swerve, spiced up!

[yash101]

I was wondering if any team has tried spicing swerve up by using supershifters/ball shifters, etc. How heavy would it be and would there be any advantage in using this technology? Also, I'm wondering if your team uses shifters to:
-increase torque on demand
-increase the top speed without adding more motors
-allow the robot to move quickly on the field while being able to push around other robots
-all of the above


Just for the sake of a Christmas teaser, has any team succeeded in making a very high-scoring two-wheeled robot? I'd love to see some pictures, or even videos of it. That's what I call, an honor to Mr. Kamen

[Bryce2471]

Most teams who make swerve drives have trouble not letting it consume their resources for the whole build season and their weight for the whole robot. For that reason, adding shifting would ruin their chances for success. One exception to the rule is team 1717. In 2012 they ran a custom 2 speed dog shifting swerve (and maybe in 2013 i'm not sure). I'm not sure what they used it for but my guess would be crossing the barrier and climbing the bridge.
Also, adding the cost of 4 ball shifters or super shifters to the cost of a swerve would most likely but the robot over budget. It does make for a cool drive train though.

[connor.worley]

Emperor Swerve from 973 did it.

[Jared]

Before I was involved in FIRST, our team made swerve modules with a dog shifter and CIM motor built into the module. There were many parts, and the shifting functionality wasn't really needed.

Here's a CAD rendering of the part I found on the internet.

[Pratik Kunapuli]

Team 1717 had a 2-speed swerve drive in 2013, and I believe they have been doing really cool custom swerve modules since 2009

[tickspe15]

In 2009 we made a 2wheel swerve drive robot just to run laps. It was similar to 148's tumbleweed but with 2 wheels