"West Coast" drive?

[MrForbes]

The frame can be smaller and lighter. Also it's easier to make a live axle (axle turns with the wheel) robot with cantilevered axles.

[NickE]

Originally Posted by pogenwurst

Thanks. Is the only advantage of such a setup easy maintenance / wheel swapping, or are there others?

Quick & easy wheel swapping sure is nice, but there are also other benefits, as Travis outlined in his post.

Originally Posted by Travis Covington

And as far as complexity is concerned, you are correct to a point. There can be much simpler ways of doing this same concept, but the way it is done now eliminates a lot of parts, increases reliability, eases in maintainability and has far fewer frictional losses than doing it pretty much any other way. Since we do have the resources to manufacture these parts, these other benefits I just mentioned create an advantage (in our eyes) over alternative methods and "simpler" designs.

[pogenwurst]

Originally Posted by NickE

Quick & easy wheel swapping sure is nice, but there are also other benefits, as Travis outlined in his post.

Ah, I missed that somehow, thanks for pointing it out.