My team is thinking about deigning our own swerve drive chassis for next year (modular, not chain), and we were wondering what the best combination of drive+steer motors is, as well as the best wheels for a typical swerve drive chassis. Any other tips or hints about swerve drive would be super helpful, too. Thoughts? Thanks!
You can read about and see pictures of ours in the Team 696 2015 build blog and the 2015 FIRST Robots: Behind the Design book.
For drive motors, I don’t think you have many options aside from CIMs. Though last year we did use mini-CIMs instead, because drivetrain power wasn’t at all needed for recycle rush.
For rotation, we’ve used RS-550s or Andymark 9015s. They were hooked up to versaplanetary gearboxes, but I don’t know the gearing.
In 2014/2015, we used 4 inch HiGrip Wheels. But after a full season of aerial assist, the HiGrip wheels were totally demolished.
If you don’t want to have to replace your wheels throughout the season, I’d strongly suggest Colson wheels.
I was gonna say, I think the go to is usually colsons or sometimes 4" rivet-treaded wheels from AM.