pic: 'I' drivetrain concept

[BotDesigner]

Originally Posted by Captain_Kirch

This is going to be a long post, so I'm going to split it into sections here.

Semantics:
This by all means is a "H" drive. That term has already been coined and more people will know what you're talking about, so do yourself a favor call it an H drive. I would suggest reffering to this concept at the "KOP H-Drive" from now on.

I guess I agree with you here. I was referring to it as 'I' Drive to demonstrate the difference between a normal H drive where the four omnis at the corners doing the primary driving and this design when it would use the center omni/plaction for general movement. I am not sure I this makes sense but this drivetrain could be thought of a "long-Idrive" rather than a "wide-Hdrive".

Originally Posted by Captain_Kirch

Strategy:
Here's the meat and potatoes of my post. This concepts lends itself to a very unique driving strategy, one I'd like to demonstrate with hypotheticals then comment on.

-Assumptions.

For clarity sake we're going to assume the front of your robot is the top of the H and the center wheels are for side to side movement.

Uh oh, this is where your misunderstanding starts showing. The front of this robot should be thought of as the top of the 'I' (or the side of the 'H') and the center wheels are for forward backward movement while the omnis at the corners are for strafing/turning.

Originally Posted by Captain_Kirch

-Results
Your design is based off of that plaction wheel giving you extra traction, but it slows down a design that ultimately hinges upon speed and agility. Even if you get into pushing someone it wont be much power at all. Strong robots can afford to be slow and clunky because its tough to stop them, an H drive NEEDS to be fast and agile.

If you actually built one of these drivetrains for competitions, your drivers would stop using the plaction wheel and just switch to using the omni because the plaction wheel hinders you more than it helps.

Final Thoughts:

Its obvious you put a lot of effort into this design, and I'm betting youre a better designer for it. Just remember that not everything you make needs to completely reinvent the wheel so to speak.

A KOP H drive would be awesome, and you're awesome for coming up with it! I say ditch the plaction, put a faster gearbox in the middle, and take some time to really think "should the straif wheel be fixed or retractable like it is now?" Then publish the files, tell everyone how to make one and design on you crazy diamond!

Thanks for all the critical feedback. Believe me, I really appreciate it even though I might sometimes not completely agree on you!

No matter what, a H drive (or any omni-directional drive besides swerve) is not gonna do so great at defense. I was mostly thinking that for this design the plaction would act more as a drop-down drive-able brake that would prevent someone from pushing you halfway across the field sideways on your slippery omnis. The drivers would spend most of the match on the 5 omnis but would only resort to the plaction to stop your opponents momentum as the bulldoze you or to play some (very) light defense.

The design would still have good highspeed/maneuverability. The picture was unclear, there are 3 CIMs driving the toughbox and the omni and plaction are geared up.

Although the design is far from perfect (I would never use it as it is for a actual competition robot) it will hopefully inspire something that we can realistically use for build season. I have to keep everything to stuff that is already in our stock or is readily accessible to buy. Although it is not perfect it would provide my team with: fully omni-directional movement, shifting (omni is shifted up 1.5x over the plaction), ability to avoid somewhat some omni drive problems (more pushing ability, braking).