Motors: Past and Future

[Joe G.]

The CIM has been around since 2002, and four were first legal in 2005, making it practical for robots to use CIMs exclusively for drive motors.

I wasn't around then, but from what I hear drill motors stopped being used because they tended to blow up in situations where CIMs do not.

There's certainty not much that can be done to surpass the CIM for outright durability. Perhaps lighter or more efficient motors could be developed, but reliability under non-optimal conditions is what makes for a great FRC motor, and the CIMs are phenomenal at this.

[Michael Hill]

There's definitely room for more motors. I could see stepper motors coming in at some point.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

There's definitely room for more motors. I could see stepper motors coming in at some point.

I don't really see stepper motors having a great place in FRC. Too many ways to lose counts.

[Lil' Lavery]

There has certainly been plenty of new motors introduced over the years. The MiniCIM and BAG motor were introduced in 2013. The AndyMark motors were not much before that. The throttle motors have only been around since like 2010, iirc (but nobody uses those anyway). The 775 banebots motors have only been around since 2011 or 2012 (don't remember when they first introduced the 550, but it was around the same time I think). Not to mention several useful motors have been discontinued in the past decade, namely the globe and fisher price motors (not to mention the significant variations between different FP model numbers).

Very few motors are developed for FRC specifically (I think the two VexPro CIM variants being the only ones). More often, FRC-suppliers develop gearboxes to integrate with them (namely the CIM-size or 500 series motors). In some cases, namely with AndyMark, they are reatiled as gearmotors with these gearboxes affixed as a standard COTS item.

Honestly, if anything, I kinda yearn for the days of fewer high powered motors. The drivetrain arms race is getting ridiculous, and now you don't even have to sacrifice motors from elsewhere on your robot to compete. Scarcity isn't really a factor in designing with motors anymore. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but my personal nostalgia biases me.