1511 Prototype Drivetrain

[Arpan]

I love the tensioners.

Were I to design a drive like this, I'd personally forget about the omni wheels on the corners and use normal traction wheels. At high speeds with a square or slightly long frame, a 6 wheel dropped center drive turns a little on the fast side, even without omnis.

If you don't want to drop the center and want to use 4 traction + 2 omni's, that's cool too.

For an example of a drive which uses omnis to make it more manuverable than the average tank drive, check out 1625's 2014 drive. I heard that weight distribution is important for something like that , though.

I'd also eliminate the dropdown belly pan brake. It's a cool idea for a game where you really don't want to go anywhere, but, as I said in the other thread, I'd rather make sure I have high traction on my wheels and a way of locking them (encoders and smart code?) For a game where alignment (like, say, to shoot) is key, odds are a robot's momentum when it hits you will knock you far enough out of alignment that you have to switch back to wheels to realign.

Plus, "Our brakes are down and we can't move" is a bad way to end a match.