Penalizing mecanum wheeled robots durring alliance selection.

[Sam_Mills]

Originally Posted by T^2

Tank drives such as 254's, 971's, or 1678's can get out of pins precisely due to clever use of bumper shape and material selection. One may even go so far as to say, as others in this thread have done, that the ease-of-use of such drivetrains allows teams to funnel more resources into other aspects of the robot, such as the aforementioned bumpers. Then again, even though I was part of team 1678 for the past two years, I didn't see a single one of our division qualification matches, so what do I know?

I am very aware that some of the best teams in the world are able to get out of friction pins pretty quickly (which is a relative term, meaning the average time to get out of friction pins is anything but quick), this is not what I was addressing. I was addressing the other 2700+ teams that have to decide every year what drive train they want to use. Most of them will not do extensive research, and many will be making their bumpers on practice day. Accounting for this, if for some reason not getting T-boned is their number 1 priority, then tank with traction wheels is undeniably the worst decision they can make.

Tank drives are great and I would probably never willingly field anything else, but relative to other drive trains they are the most susceptible to friction pins. Outlier cases can be misleading, but perhaps my statement was too. Of course the teams that can get out of t-bones the best are some of the highest level teams, but just because something is possible doesn't make it likely.

I will concede however, that I should not have been so rude, and I apologize.