The missing feature: A common thread

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by couvillion

Your robot is only as good as it's weakest piece.

Absolutely. This was a case of us thinking we could pull off something that ultimately we failed to pull off. On the bright side, we're overjoyed with our drivetrain as a base for future robots -- with some redesign and tweaking we think it will be applicable to almost any situation.

[Wayne TenBrink]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

On the bright side, we're overjoyed with our drivetrain as a base for future robots -- with some redesign and tweaking we think it will be applicable to almost any situation.

If you have a good general design approach for your chassis/drivetrains that can quickly be adapted to any game, that frees up a lot of time and brain power to focus on the "top end". It also lets you start building shortly after kickoff, which spreads the fabrication schedule. Chassis/drivetrain prototypes are great pre-season projects. I doubt many powerhouse teams build a chassis/drivetrain that isn't based on something they had previously worked with.