Drive Train War

[asid61]

Originally Posted by Dale

It's worth noting that 6WD and 8WD drive trains really are the gold standard in FRC. I say this so that teams who have never done a exotic drive train before don't think they have to come up with a swerve drive or some such to be competitive. BeyondInspection has a nice breakdown of the drive trains that made it to Einstein this year and previously. You'll see the vast majority aren't exotic, just very well executed 6WD or 8WD.

One also has to consider the ratio of teams that use a drive versus the number that actually make it to Einstein or elims.
That being said, 6WD still makes it Enstein more often than other types of drivetrains.

[Scott Kozutsky]

The best drivetrain is the one that gets you where you want as fast as possible as consistently as possible.
Tankdrives have the pushing power, speed and simplicity that are required to accomplish this while being the most reliable and, usually, lightest drivetrain.
You usually can't win a match that you don't attend because of mechanical problems.
I have yet to see a mecanum or omni based robot that is more maneuverable than 254s 6 cim tankdrive.

[Dale]

I have yet to see a mecanum or omni based robot that is more maneuverable than 254s 6 cim tankdrive.

Agreed. I don't think anyone who saw 254 or 1114 on the Einstein field last season would say "Too bad they don't have swerve drive ... they'd really be competitive then." So much of it is how well your driver is able to leverage the drive train you have. If your exotic drive train is fragile, took too long to get working, or it takes too much practice to learn to drive well, it's not a good tradeoff IMO.