Overclocked's Rover Reveal

[Gdeaver]

Last year we made a round swerve, this year a tri-bot. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages. I think we will stay with a square bot unless the game presents a need for these shapes. The roll out maneuver is the way to get out of a pin with swerve. Easy in theory but requires practice to master.

[Joe Johnson]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

Last year we made a round swerve, this year a tri-bot. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages. I think we will stay with a square bot unless the game presents a need for these shapes. The roll out maneuver is the way to get out of a pin with swerve. Easy in theory but requires practice to master.

You are so right. Every design decision has pluses as minuses. The game ultimately decides where the balance settles.

Your post also highlights the importance of doing a fall practice project. Doing this in the fall lets your team figure things out without betting an entire FIRST season on an improven design.

And it gives your Drive Team time to learn how to take advantage of the design's strengths.

And it gives your Coding Team time to debug code.

And and and

Fall Practice Projects. They're really good for FIRST teams.

Dr. Joe J.

[Jared Russell]

Originally Posted by Gdeaver

Last year we made a round swerve, this year a tri-bot. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages. I think we will stay with a square bot unless the game presents a need for these shapes.

So you now have a complete FIRST logo's worth of swerve robots?

[IKE]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

So you now have a complete FIRST logo's worth of swerve robots?

If only they allow white bumpers....

[ajlapp]

Just wanted to chime in and say thanks to Dr. Joe and Overclocked for sharing their work.

I was extremely pleased with the final result and glad to be a participant as a hardware sponsor.

Wild Swerve units were the first commercially available swerve drives ever produced...based on the legendary designs of Raul and FRC111 Wildstang! These hit the market well before the COTS revolution of the last few seasons and have seen competition action on many fine bots.

Co-axial designs seem to be the flavor of the day, but these "steerable transmission" designs still have merit and the Overclocked team has done an excellent job of highlighting what can be done in a relatively short amount of time given some select resources.

I think the round design is definitely cool and I see some serious potential on the field of play.

Keep up the good work. Hopefully you hit the ground running with a complete and working swerve design for the upcoming season.

[Joe Ross]

How fast were you able to do a 90 degree step change?