Recent Kit Base Performance

[D.Allred]

Originally Posted by fargus111111111

By "other" I mean some sort of omni-directional drive train as a simple skid steer is something we already know how to do and we can purchase and be running very quickly. We have attempted swerve twice in the past, the first time we were very successful, 2009. The second time, we don't talk about that robot much, 2013, the swerve system was gone by our second regional. I therefore have been exploring that path along with the octo-canum and butterfly paths.

The lack of a drive train development time is an issue I see on my team, as much as this would be an exercise on how to build another drive it is more an exercise in what other options are out there and how to go about choosing the best one. We have a lot of new students who have no idea what the difference is between a mecanum, omni, and traction wheel and they are even more clueless when presented with the question, "what is a (insert your favorite drive style here) drive?" This lack of knowledge often results in us building another skid steer purely for ease and skimming through an important part of the early development of our robot. (not that skids are bad, I certainly like them I just see many competitive advantages to being able to move in any direction)

I see.

Our students have always wanted to explore swerve. That would definitely take a lot of development to make it a "go-to" solution. Sab-BOT-age has published a lot of information if you want to take the swerve plunge.
http://wiki.team1640.com/index.php?title=Swerve_Central

Simbotics has a great design guide for your students to explore different drive trains and selection criteria.
http://www.simbotics.org/files/pdf/drivetraindesign.pdf

Good luck with your training.

David