pic: Don't do this. It's a bad idea.

[Aren Siekmeier]

Odd how this comes out the day before I return from a week long vacation when I had enough time to think this up in my head. This is exactly what I was envisioning, mechanically anyways: a swerve module that can be pivoted effortlessly due to the differential box.

Several people have explained it already, but I'll take a stab too. You turn the coax shaft as usual and it turns the differential box turning both wheels, like a normal differential drive (this also allows for some interesting turning cases without most of the wheel scrub). Turning the module drives the wheels in opposite directions while the differential box remains stationary. He added the fourth bevel in there just cuz (for strength?), it seems to me, as most differentials operate with only three. Now try flipping one wheel's input to the box (by putting the two perpendicular bevels on the same shaft or any of a number of other things), and now it can translate freely, but must be powered to rotate.... An interesting, though usually useless, prospect.

The universal joint suspension was definitely not something that entered my head. Why you would ever need that, no one knows. Then again, why would you ever need any of this? It's just awesome, that's all.