pic: Team 2220's Swerve Drive Chasis

[Justin Montois]

^^ That. Just that.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

From the inspector in me, in looking at the base construction, I think 'what a great place for bumpers'. However, if you use this as a design basis, please double and triple check the bumper rules and FRAME PERIMETER definition if it returns this year. If in doubt, please ask the Q&A after kickoff.

[JesseK]

I too like the I beams as use for a frame -- very creative!

From a maintenance standpoint I would make some strategic holes in the I-beams so you can see what's going on inside the modules in the very likely event of a problem.

To solve the frame perimeter issues (based upon previous years' rules), some stiff foam or lightweight plywood would fit nicely into the I-beam rails.

I'll also echo John's sentiments, yet also add to it that programming a crab drive is just as difficult as building it. Hopefully you have very, very talented programmers since they've probably only seen un-optimized or theoretical code.

[imac256]

That does appear to be a very nice system you guys have designed, but my question is have you guys figured out how you are going to control it and place the sensors on the wheels? A swerve drive needs the sensors to operate and their positioning can be somewhat tricky and has to be designed for.

As for coding a swerve drive, it took my team about a week straight to perfect our swerve drive code, and at least another week of testing before it was stable enough for the drivers to really use, and during that time the frustrations were high. Be sure to give the base to the programmers at least half way through the build time, because trying to program this with people breathing down your necks is not fun. I speak from personal experience there, our 2009 and then our prototype 2010 robot were both swerve drive.

If you guys would like some examples of swerve code, it isn't very nicely structured, our old code is here:
http://coolhub.imsa.edu/cybercollab/...ming-documents
If you have any questions regarding that code send me a PM and I'll try to help

- Ian McInerney
Lead Programmer, Team 2022

[Ether]

Originally Posted by JesseK

I'll also echo John's sentiments, yet also add to it that programming a crab drive is just as difficult as building it. Hopefully you have very, very talented programmers since they've probably only seen un-optimized or theoretical code.

@Jedward45: Are you planning to rig this up as a crab, or do you plan to have independent drive and steering for all 4 wheels?

[Jedward45]

Originally Posted by Ether

@Jedward45: Are you planning to rig this up as a crab, or do you plan to have independent drive and steering for all 4 wheels?

Yeah, were chaining together via three links the outer rotational sprockets... We still haven't decided on which motors to use for this as our CIMS are all tied up... Were planning on building two drives trains, one to keep behind for programmers.....