Swerve Drive

[AlecMataloni]

The obvious advantage would be omnidirectional motion. As opposed to an omni-wheel drive or a Mechanum drive, Swerve retains all the pushing power of a similarly geared 4-6 wheel drive because of the potential to use traction wheels in the design, as opposed to the slippery wheels used in a mecanum or omni drive that result in a loss of power/pushing ability.

This type of omnidirectional movement (minus the traction wheels) was quite helpful during 2009's Lunacy, as pinning was completely legal. A huge advantage was given to teams that could ease their way out of a pin with their swerve drives (I'm pretty sure The New Cool mentions this while talking about 1717's swerve that year). Basically any game with robot contact rules like 2009 makes swerve look very attractive.

One downside is weight and part allocation. Swerves usually take up 6-8 motors, and they are definitely heavier than most other drivetrains, depending on design.

Another downer is the amount of coding involved. Programming a swerve drive is just as much a challenge as designing it, and then some. Perhaps someone else can touch on the specifics, since I'm not too familiar with how it all works.

Our driver has complained about driving our 2010 robot due to its long base. You probably don't want to design a long base swerve robot, because, depending on your design, it can be a hassle to turn the orientation of the robot, as it would be if you didn't have those drop center wheels on a 6 wheel that makes the base turnable; however, if you were on 1625 that same year, then this didn't apply.

Swerve drive is HIGHLY situational. It's only given us a visible advantage in probably 2 different years that we've used it (2003 and 2009). A well driven 6 wheel can hold its own against a swerve, at least in my opinion. It's important to know how to build an effective iteration of a swerve before the season starts and when it does start, It's highly important to judge if whatever your team wants to do with a swerve is accomplished just as well by a 6 wheel drivetrain (sorry if the wording was awkward).