Be afraid... Be VERY Afraid

[Cory]

"Hey guys, check out this super awesome thing I made, which is exactly what multiple teams made 8-9 years ago, with some revolutionary component missing. You have no possible way of guessing what is missing because I've given you absolutely no details, but I will string this thread along for the next month because it's fun to have lots of people wondering what my (not so) revolutionary design will be"

Does that about cover it?

[DanielDTech]

Originally Posted by Harkirat Batoo

Judging from the ratios I see, the wheels seem like they would be spinning at approximately the same speed, also the way the assembly is mounted suggests that it pivots, and the shape of the cut out of the mount suggests the smaller wheel can be raised significantly. In my opinion, this seems like a mechanism to either raise the chassis to over come an obstacle or a mechanism that allows a team to switch the configuration of their drive terrain during a mach, for example switching from a 4 wheel to an 8 wheel or 6 wheel to an 8 wheel or any other combination.

No. Much more simpler and out of the box as that.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Cory

"Hey guys, check out this super awesome thing I made..."

Does that about cover it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...LzPqo1qfU#t=4s

[DanielDTech]

Originally Posted by Cory

"Hey guys, check out this super awesome thing I made, which is exactly what multiple teams made 8-9 years ago, with some revolutionary component missing. You have no possible way of guessing what is missing because I've given you absolutely no details, but I will string this thread along for the next month because it's fun to have lots of people wondering what my (not so) revolutionary design will be"

Does that about cover it?

Hey guys, check out this extremely super awesome thing I made, which is not not exactly what multiple teams made 8-9 years ago, with some revolutionary and simple component missing. You have little way of guessing what is missing because I've given you very little details, but I will string this thread along for the next month because it's fun to have lots of people wondering what my extremely revolutionary drive mechanism will be.

I've made some edits, please review.

[Kevin Selavko]

Originally Posted by JVN

Video of it in action.

GAME HINT!

[BJC]

A couple thoughts on the design of what is revealed..

1. I don't think that putting this in a swerve module would be very smart. It is apparent that the small wheel can't be pivoted down until it reaches the center of the assembly. If this were on a pod that could turn the wheel touching the ground would literally be dragged sideways because the pod wouldn't pivot around the center of the wheel as is apparent in the top view. I'm ruling out swerve as this seems like it would probably be pretty suckish in that application. (Unless it only pivots when the big wheel is in the perfect position, again not that great a design.)

2. You only have mounting holes for this assembly on the wheel side which is presumably the outboard side of the chassis. This assembly either nests into another part of the chassis or else I would say that is also a design failure as the entire module would be in cantilever.

3. It appears that the axle that you are using to pivot on is live as it is modeled the same way as the wheel axles. If this is the case you could be doing something interesting where your drive motor also pivots the module, a second motor that pivots the module assists in powering the wheels (never mind), or if these are on a drivetrain with two to a side then the front and back can be chained together via this shaft. There is also very little holding those two halves together if all of those shafts are live. All I see is two standoffs by the motor. Based on the pictures I would try to get a standoff towards the big wheel side of the pivoting assembly.

4. If four of these are going on the Outer corners of a chassis I would be concerned about being able to turn. Your basically running a four wheel drive which picking up some wheels can't really help. Octocanium gets around this with omni/mec wheels. If this is the case your turning will basically stink. (unless you're wide) Unfortuantly, you can't just throw another wheel in the middle and chain off it because it won't switch ratios with the other wheels.

Based on what you've given us I think I see the general intent but I'm not sure that you've thought all the way through everything as it appears here.

I am not afraid.
Regards, Bryan

[MrTechCenter]

The rest of it pivots this one portion of it shown here in its entirety and this is used to make the whole bot pivot?

I'm probably not even close, I've never been on drivetrain team.

[Siri]

When you say "both wheels are actuated", it sounds as if you mean independently actuated--if so, along what line of action?

If not, what we have is a pivoting drivetrain module with two wheels at different gear ratios and diameters. The wheel are indeed drive wheels, powered simultaneously but contacting independently (meaning the treads shown contact the ground one at a time?) The special thing has something to do with changing the 3D position and/or its first derivative with respect to the chassis on which these units are mounted. I feel like it has something to do with being able to turn. As it stands, this seems like it would be really bad at turning--at least versus the work put into it--but it's definitely not swerve...
EDIT: Bryan beat me to #2 and 3 (though he did 3 way better than I did).

All that, and you know what bugs me? that little peg thing inside the triangular pivot axle support. What's up with that thing?

[Saberbot]

Just because no one's said it yet, I'm going to take a guess that this is for a ball drive.

Something similar to http://sphericaldrivesystem.com/

But on second thought, I dont' see how that could work without omni's for wheels.

If it's not a ball drive, I'm still going to guess that these wheels don't touch the carpet directly.

[DanielDTech]

Originally Posted by BJC

A couple thoughts on the design of what is revealed..

1. I don't think that putting this in a swerve module would be very smart. It is apparent that the small wheel can't be pivoted down until it reaches the center of the assembly. If this were on a pod that could turn the wheel touching the ground would literally be dragged sideways because the pod wouldn't pivot around the center of the wheel as is apparent in the top view. I'm ruling out swerve as this seems like it would probably be pretty suckish in that application. (Unless it only pivots when the big wheel is in the perfect position, again not that great a design.)

2. You only have mounting holes for this assembly on the wheel side which is presumably the outboard side of the chassis. This assembly either nests into another part of the chassis or else I would say that is also a design failure as the entire module would be in cantilever.

3. It appears that the axle that you are using to pivot on is live as it is modeled the same way as the wheel axles. If this is the case you could be doing something interesting where your drive motor also pivots the module, a second motor that pivots the module assists in powering the wheels (never mind), or if these are on a drivetrain with two to a side then the front and back can be chained together via this shaft. There is also very little holding those two halves together if all of those shafts are live. All I see is two standoffs by the motor. Based on the pictures I would try to get a standoff towards the big wheel side of the pivoting assembly.

4. If these are going on the Outer corners of a chassis I would be concerned about being able to turn. Your basically running a four wheel drive which picking up some wheels can't really help. If this is the case your turning will basically stink. (unless you're wide) Unfortuantly, you can't just throw another wheel in the middle and chain off it because it won't switch ratios with the other wheels.

Based on what you've given us I think I see the general intent but I'm not sure that you've thought all the way through everything as it appears here.

I am not afraid.
Regards, Bryan

I can assure you that you definitely do not "see the general intent", unless that "general intent" is to drive the robot. None of you said is relevant to the overall idea of this mechanism.

As for the pivoting axis, what you see are spacers covering the actual moving axles. The middle axle is only used for, apart from holding that big pulley in the middle, mounting the pulley system to the oddly-shaped plate that you see.

[Brandon_L]

The power source for Doc Brown's Flux Capacitor

[Kevin Selavko]

Originally Posted by Saberbot

Just because no one's said it yet, I'm going to take a guess that this is for a ball drive.

Something similar to http://sphericaldrivesystem.com/

But on second thought, I dont' see how that could work without omni's for wheels.

If it's not a ball drive, I'm still going to guess that these wheels don't touch the carpet directly.

What are the benefits of a ball drive?

[JosephC]

I think he created this as a joke; and it actually serves no purpose.

OR

We will all bow to this magnificent revolutionary on January 5th.

[timytamy]

I think someone suggested 180 degree but it seems like it is designed to pivot around maybe 90 degrees. Notice the cutout around the smaller wheel is large enough to fit the larger one as well. (although this may be for aesthetic/symmetrical reasons) What that would buy you I have no idea though. Maybe you can drive a second mechanism from the smaller wheel in an upright position?

Edit: nope

It definitely doesn't pivot that much
Well is looks like it definitely flips in the direction of the larger wheel with the larger wheel traveling under to other side raising the small wheel way up in the air and flips the CIM completely to the other side...

[Ed Law]

Originally Posted by Cory

"Hey guys, check out this super awesome thing I made, which is exactly what multiple teams made 8-9 years ago, with some revolutionary component missing. You have no possible way of guessing what is missing because I've given you absolutely no details, but I will string this thread along for the next month because it's fun to have lots of people wondering what my (not so) revolutionary design will be"

Does that about cover it?

Cory, I am with you. I have absolutely no interest in this guessing game. Why am I posting? I have absolutely nothing better to do. This is a guy who just joined CD the day he posted this so this is his first post. Here is a 17 year old who is probably a senior this year and a team captain and this is his 4th year in FRC. Why is everybody else posting? Definitely not for the $15.

And why should I be afraid? Is it because if your robot is on the field, then mine should not even be used because yours is that awesome.