Is there a dominant design style?

[lethc]

Originally Posted by bEdhEd

Sounds a lot like my team! Especially with VexPRO products. Also, VexPRO and other Vex products are great for our color scheme since their products generally come in schemes of black, dark green, and gold-ish (mainly from their gears), Aside from pretty colors, VexPRO products have been super reliable, and I've had no major issue yet. Like 1678, if a transmission is not a ball shifter on the WCD drive train, it's a versaplanetary somewhere else. I think the last time we attempted a custom transmission was in 2010. From 2013 on, it's been almost all VexPRO COTS transmissions.

Last year was an exception though, since we used mecanum drive instead of WCD, with no shifters. After competing against 1678, 254, and 118 in several playoff and finals matches, we saw that performance with a drop center 6 or 8 wheel drive in a game is just as good if not better for maneuverability than non-linear motion drives like swerve and mecanum. It's all about driver practice. This is especially important when considering the percieved advantage of these other drive systems in the context of a game like Recycle Rush.

We also found that strafing with the mecanum was only important when lining up with the chute. Originally we only needed mecanum to do our autonomous which was supposed to grab all 3 totes while strafing along the alliance station so the robot was in between the totes and wall. That didn't work out, so we didn't need strafing for the majority of the game.

After seeing the championship being won by 1678 with WCD in a game thought to favor strafing motion, 701 will probably not stray from WCD again for competition, with only exceptions in the extreme.

I think what 701 should try is tube+hole+gusset design. We do this for prototypes, but our practice and final frames are welded. I was discussing with Doug about the advantages of the mechanism versatility for making changes over the competition season up to champs, and the welded frame doesn't give as much versatility as a tube+hole+gusset frame.

*see signature below* WCD FTW!

While I agree with your point, I don't think 1678's WCD is what made them world champion caliber.