A Swerve Drive Question

[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by Noah Kleinberg

P.S. A holonomic drive can rotate and translate at the same time, right?

Correct. My team built one this past season, and, with the proper programming, it can rotate and translate simultaneously.

In response to the original post, you could theoretically design a swerve drivetrain that could do both... however, you'd probably have to make the wheels turn at a 45 degree angle to the corners, making it essentially a holonomic drive. However, why would you want to? In my mind, the biggest reason for choosing holonomic over swerve is the simplicity of construction. Going holonomic means no rotating wheel modules, which cuts down on weight and build time. You also gain the ability to rotate and translate at the same time. The programming, however, is considerably more difficult if you want your robot to drive in a straight line (we've still never quite perfected that). All those omniwheels also mean that your robot gets pushed around easily. Adding the extra programming and omniwheels to swerve just doesn't make sense to me. You lose power, and add a lot of complexity. One or the other is hard enough; don't drive yourself crazy trying to do both.