Mecanum vs. Swerve Drive

[Siri]

Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK

Drive mode was probably the wrong word. One setup that I've thought of is where one joystick controls direction and speed, the other joystick controls your turn radius, and another button that activates turning around the center of the robot. This is the exact same setup as cheesy drive, except you also have the ability to move in any direction. This allows you to switch between tank and swerve, without switching modes. This is completely theoretical, so I honestly have no idea how well it would work, but the idea is that there must be some way to incorporate the benefits of both drives, without having to switch modes.

Ah. This is roughly what we do, if I understand correctly (though I admit I don't see what it has to do with tank control). One stick controls translation: crab forward, left, back...any of the 360 degrees. The other stick controls chassis orientation, at any of the 360 degrees.* (We used to have a control more along the lines of "turn radius" when it was a snake mode.) I'm not sure what you consider to be "tank" control and its drive benefits in this sense, though. I thought you meant tank control as opposed to arcade--one stick per drive side (forward is FF, back BB, turn left BF, right FB)--but this doesn't sound it. If what you describe as the first stick is "tank", what's swerve, and why is tank easier over long distances than whatever swerve is?


*I don't play COD, but I'm told this is analogous to move & look, for any gamers out there.