Drive Systems

[lcoreyl]

Originally Posted by PowerfulKitty

Tank is the basic and, in my opinion, the best drive for most teams. It is simple and effective. I believe that even in RR tank is superior. This is most often a 6 wheel, dropped center. Sometimes you will see an 8 wheel dropped center. It provides the best traction so you get pushing power and acceleration.
The main disadvantage of tank is the inability to move sideways.

Mecanum is often used to move sideways. I am not a programmer, but from what I understand it requires rather complex programming. When done well, it is easy to use, but can be easily messed up. It provides poor tration and is easily pushed around.

H drive uses omni wheels mounted perpendicular to each other. Omni wheels hame small rollers that allow them to slide sideways, so there is a set of wheels for each direction. It has the same low traction as mecanum.

Swerve is often considered the best overall drive. It has great traction and has sideways/diagonal/any direction movement. Each wheel is mounted on a pivot so it turns beneath the bot. These are very difficult to build but are very versatile.

One of the most interesting drives I have driven is one developed by team 967. This 9 wheel drive used an 8 wheel dropped center base, with one wheel mounted perpendicular and on a piston. When the piston is activated the wheel is forced down and the back end of the bot lifts off the ground, so it is supported by the two front wheels and the 9th wheel in the center of the bot. This allows great traction in regular tank mode and the ability to move sideways. I believe in 2014 Team Titanium utilized this concept in their drive base.

What else is out there?

lots of incorrect and exaggerated information in here. since the OP wasn't asking about each drive and rather what is out there, I won't turn this into thread 8,398 like this.

There were a few Killough (4 wheel omni). Here's one

At least one octocanum.

And don't forget the... kiwi swerve? not sure what overclocked is calling this.