Best Drivetrain

[hillale]

Originally Posted by EricH

Cons: may take time to turn, may require a turret, heavier, more complex.

If you're going to do one, start prototyping now.

Turning is definitely something to look into, either programming a way for the wheels to turn a certain direction when told to go to a specific point (if doing a coaxial, they may take the longer way around). As far as the turret goes, we powered the front/back wheels separately and were able to tank drive sideways at the start of the season to reorient (slow/painful). However during/after our 2nd regional we developed "drift" buttons. Pressing one of these buttons would cut power to either the front or rear gear box, allowing the robot, while moving sideways, arc in orientation. Once our drivers figured out how to best optimize these buttons, reorientation was much easier and a whole lot less painful (we still used tank steer, but not nearly as much).

Originally Posted by Jetweb

In addition to the teams who have already been posted, I would add 1625. There swerve drive was up there with the best of them and they published a lot of info about it on this site that a simple search should find.

Thank you for the recognition. Our team is very proud of our third iteration swerve drive, which handled 3 regionals and champs without any throwing of chains or any mishaps at all, actually. Being able to drive a swerve is something else, but the control system this year takes a lot of practice.