pic: Team 1114 Gearboxes

[CD47-Bot]

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[Karthik]

Here they are in all their glory. These gearboxes were inspired by a lot of great teams in the past. They're definitely the most complex ones I've worked on in my seven years of involvment with FIRST.

Let us know what you think.

[Matt Adams]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Let us know what you think.

One word: Slick!

Matt

[matchpoint04]

Are those things omnidirve? And what motors are you using? I only see Globes.

[Joel Glidden]

They have the drill motors inside the lower section. You can see the back of the drill motor through the holes in the gearbox. I think I see FP motors in there as well. /powah

[JoeXIII'007]

Those are just beautiful. :-)

[Greg Perkins]

sexy kinda, although i wouldnt go out w/ it...does that sound bad? lol NICE JOB!

[Salik Syed]

Looks like a swerve drive to me...the globes are probably only for turning

one question....why not have seperate gear boxes and run Bevel gears to the wheels? this way you can have shifting swerve steer.... i was thinking about that a while ago but we decided not to use swerve this year.

I must say tho.....this is one of the slickest swerve gearboxes i've seen...ditto on the slick part

[Adams High Man]

ok, where do i put the coin in and where does the coffee come out???

[Rob Colatutto]

Very nice. I must ask though, what is that pneumatics for on the left module?

[Collin Fultz]

Originally Posted by Rob Colatutto

Very nice. I must ask though, what is that pneumatics for on the left module?

i could be wrong, but i think they nu-matic was just sitting on the table when they took the picture. it doesn't look like it's attached to anything.

[ShadowKnight]

very nice...we might try doing swerve drive next year...check out the sexy robot

[Karthik]

Thanks for all the wonderful comments.

To confirm you suspicions, yes we do have the "nerve to swerve" this year. Our gearboxes are powered by the Fisher Price and Drill motors, with Globe handling the steering.

Shifting Swerve Drive? The idea was talked about, but in the end we felt we wouldn't have the weight for it. Our gearbox mastermind, Ian Mackenzie may want to elaborate on this.

In regards to the pneumatic cylinder on the table, you are correct in that it was just lying on the table at the time of the picture. But, that is not to say we aren't using pneumatics on our drive system... You'll have to wait until the next teaser to see those.

Or, you could look very carefully at the following video clips. This is footage of our robot driving for the first time.

http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~imackenz/mobility1114.avi
http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~imacken...lity1114-2.avi

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Thanks for all the wonderful comments.

Karthik,
Looks awesome.
Can't wait to see it in Long Island!

John

[Joe Johnson]

Very clever and compact gearbox & swerve design.

Nicely done.

Joe J.

P.S. I have just watched the videos. Looks even better. One think I know from experience is that the control software and the operator interface are key parts of getting the most out of machines with the nerve to swerve. I know these were just baby pictures, but it seems to me that you have a lot of work to do in both areas.

This is not a criticism, but just a heads up while there is still time to improve -- we were one of the early adopters of swerve and I have spent 10 all nighters (at least) trying to get the robot to behave.

One consequence of not getting it right is that the drivers tend to get into the "blame the machine" mode where whenever the robot is not working, it is the software's fault -- sometimes this is actually the case, but a lot of the time it was operator error and the operator did not get better because they did not look to themselves as the source of the problem. Think about it.

Finally, please don't take this as a criticism. I like your design quite a lot. You have chosen a difficult path -- I solute you. JJ