Swerve: Belts or Chain?

[Answer42]

Originally Posted by Qbot2640

We've got a very young and energetic team (including a freshman programmer), and a new milling machine...understanding that this process may take several years, we are ready to start experimenting with swerve. Our plan is to make four modules and start playing with the programming and implementation.

A couple questions:
(1) The 15 tooth miter gears I'm finding on most robot supplier websites seem way too small to me. It seems to me, as I start to draw it all out, that a larger driven gear and a smaller pinion would make the geometry better - and accomplish a part of the speed reduction in the process. What experiences have others had here?

(2) I'm leaning toward using belts, but notice that most systems use chain. I definitely have a bias toward belt - I'll admit that, but what are the true pros and cons (other than the obvious, that is)?

Why not avoid bevel gear altogether? One of the oldest names in the swerve business, team 16, uses slip rings to allow continuous rotation without the use of coaxial shafts. This gives them a huge efficiency advantage because they don't have to deal with the power losses of bevel gears. Ultimately it's up to your team to decide what is most important to you. But if I were to design a swerve right now I would build on all the information the the neutrinos, pwnage, and the bomb squad have released about their swerves recently. In particular the cim as an axle style that the neutrinos pioneered is one of the simplest and most compact ways I've ever seen a swerve done.