Best Drive Train

[josmee443]

What type of drive train do you guys think is the best in terms of speed, pushing force, agility (mobility), durability, and overall efficiency? Typically, my team uses regular Tank drive, though we did experiment with Mecanums a few years back.

Drivetrains:

Tank
Mecanum
Holonomic
Slide
Swerve
Any others?

[peirvine]

Where is the Jump Drive?

[dodar]

Ya, the 2 big names you left off were Octocanum and Nonadrive.

[Oblarg]

Swerve has always seemed to me like an unambiguous favorite if you have a good, light design and the resources to pull it off cleanly.

This offseason, 4464 is going to be looking at designing nonadrive/octanum, as that seems reasonably within our machining capabilities (we can do lasercut 1/4'' delrin, which ought to be sufficient for the wheel modules if they're designed properly) and offers a significant, strict increase in performance over slide drive/mecanum.

[Anupam Goli]

100% of all nine-sided drive base robots have won einstein.

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by Wing

100% of all nine-sided drive base robots have won einstein.

I chuckled.

[Andrew Schreiber]

Whatever works for your strategy.

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Whatever works for your strategy.

Quoted for truth. It took me a while to learn this, but in FRC, there is no universal "best" anything. Whatever works best for your team is going to give you the best results (that being said, 10 wheel nonacanumswerve drive isn't the best drivetrain).

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

that being said, 10 wheel nonacanumswerve drive isn't the best drivetrain

Some intrepid CADer should take the initiative and draw up a design of this for all of our entertainment.

[jwfoss]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Whatever works for your strategy.

...and is within the resources (cost, machining, etc) for your team.

[stingray27]

Isn't tank drive the naming convention for the style of controls? Either way, if your using tank drive you MUST drop those center wheels. Otherwise the drive system will be useless because you wont be able to maneuver well...

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by jwfoss

...and is within the resources (cost, machining, etc) for your team.

Shouldn't those factor into your strategy?

Originally Posted by stingray27

Isn't tank drive the naming convention for the style of controls? Either way, if your using tank drive you MUST drop those center wheels. Otherwise the drive system will be useless because you wont be able to maneuver well...

NOT true at all. If your wheel base is wider than it is long... or actually, just read Chris' paper http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1443

[stingray27]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Shouldn't those factor into your strategy?



NOT true at all. If your wheel base is wider than it is long... or actually, just read Chris' paper http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/1443

Sorry my version of tank drive has been corrupted over the years due to how we ALWAYS have had 6-8 wheel drive and a long bot at that.... forgot about the wide bots....

[Jacob.B]

On Truck Town we like tank because it works well with our transmissions that shift from low to high gear. But I would like to experiment with other drive systems and wheels, because who wouldn't want to use beast wheels like 25?

[Jacob.B]

But I also like mecanum, maybe not for our team, but for other younger teams. They get the versatility that they want without taking on the challenge of swerve, that some of the best, most experienced teams can't conquer. Just like 2010! *shutters*