paper: 1625 Swerve Through the Ages

[Dillon Carey]

Originally Posted by Ether

It is common to refer to this as "crab drive", to differentiate it from swerves with other steering designs... some of which have also been dubbed with various names (but few as widely accepted and understood).

I know that the different names refer to different styles, I just have never known whivh name refers to which orientation. On 1625 we usually just call them all swerves, then add some detail about the steering setup. Slightly less effective communication, but overall easier to understand in my opinion.

[Joe G.]

Can someone tell us more about these 45 degree modules? I'm confused how they would be oriented relative to the ground and robot, and how they would be arraigned into a full swerve drive. What advantages might these give over traditional 90 degree modules?

Thanks!

[Aren_Hill]

We've actually hunted down some 20deg or something bevel gears since then, but the goal of that module was to decrease the number of parts by removing the horizontal axle. It would still be oriented with the support bearing straight up top, but with the wheel running on an angle in relation to the floor.

Not on the top of the list if we do another swerve, but a fun idea to toy with nonetheless

[Sharp Cheddar]

I'd like to pitch making a swerve drive to my team because all we ever did was the traditional 4 wheel/4 motor drive (and mecanum this year). We really like the mecanum but we lost all of our districts in Michigan this year (especially Niles) due to us getting pushed around. On to my main question, I heard that crab/swerve drives can weigh a lot, how much does your swerve weigh?