Swerve vs. Butterfly Drivetrain

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Especially for 3rd/4th robot, a butterfly drive will likely be viewed as a negative while a swerve will likely be viewed as a positive when it comes to alliance selection.

Odd, I view this one the other way.

We'd be pretty terrified picking a swerve that late in the draft if we also didn't really, really trust that team's ability to keep it running.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Odd, I view this one the other way.

We'd be pretty terrified picking a swerve that late in the draft if we also didn't really, really trust that team's ability to keep it running.

Yeah, I see what you are saying and I agree with it at the districts/regionals. There are many examples of swerve drives doing well at the championship as 3rd/4th robots (1640 off the top of my head). Assuming I could trust it, I would probably pick a swerve drive over a tank drive as a 3rd/4th robot.

My main point was that although a butterfly is more 'advanced', it will likely be viewed as a negative compared to a tank drive when it comes to 3rd/4th robot. When we did butterfly in 2014, several top teams expressed concern or dissatisfaction with it. Fair or unfair, there is some negative stigma attached to butterfly drives.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Odd, I view this one the other way.

We'd be pretty terrified picking a swerve that late in the draft if we also didn't really, really trust that team's ability to keep it running.

A nonfunctional drive is DNP in either case - and a butterfly drive will at least be functional even if it doesn't work (just zip tie the modules up).

That said, I've seen more than a few robots from teams who tried swerve drive, got the drive to work... and basically didn't do anything else well, because of the resource drain of swerve. These robots can sometimes make GREAT third picks, because they can play certain kinds of defense in certain games better than tank drive robots.

[Ginger Power]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

Especially for 3rd/4th robot, a butterfly drive will likely be viewed as a negative while a swerve will likely be viewed as a positive when it comes to alliance selection.

Can you elaborate on this? Why would a butterfly drive be inherently looked upon as a bad thing? Obviously a swerve drive will be looked upon as a good thing, if the team can drive it well, which will be included in the scouting information.

Also, given the feedback in this thread I decided to CAD a decadrive/Butterslide drive which can be found here.

Edit: Quadruple Sniped

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Ginger Power

Can you elaborate on this? Why would a butterfly drive be inherently looked upon as a bad thing? Obviously a swerve drive will be looked upon as a good thing, if the team can drive it well, which will be included in the scouting information.

Butterfly drives can't push and turn at the same time as well as a 6WD traction drive. They can make walls for defense, they can follow, but they aren't as good at direct pushing other than in a straight line.