What are the pros and cons to using a KOP Chassis, such as the Andymark Chassis, compared to a more advanced and custom system, such as a mecanum drive or the likes. Are there any major downfalls or shortcomings with the KOP Chassis, and should a veteran team consider doing something other than what is standard in the KOP?
this topic has been discussed many a time on CD, I would recommend doing some quick searches on the topic on here, and you will find an endless supply of messages, opinions, and statistics
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The KoP chassis is a great base for many teams. Many robots (including some of ours) would have been equally good or better on a KoP chassis. The benefit of driving ASAP (end of week one, sometimes even end of day one) often outweigh the limitations of the KoP chassis when it comes to packaging/system integration.
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If you have to ask about this on Chief Delphi, the answer is “use the KOP chassis.”
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Pros:
it’s free
it’s quick
it works
the design has been similar for several years, so you could make a low cost practice robot
the free/quick/works thing allows you to spend more effort on the game playing parts of the robot
Cons:
It’s single speed
it’s not geared quite right for some games
it’s a pain to replace wheels
The design is not optimized for your particular robot concept
it’s tank drive (not mecanum/swerve/H/track/whatever other things you might want)
it’s relatively heavy
it’s not showy
There are lots more, but this is the general theme.
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On the other hand, the “single speed” is relatively simple to deal with, as both AM and VEX sell gearboxes to convert that to a two-speed. That also takes care of the gearing.
I would say that most of the struggles teams have had with drive have been because they didn’t use the KOP and probably should have, but that’s a topic for another day.
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If you are one week from bag day, you have no time to make a chassis. Use the KOP chassis.
I know exactly what 254 would tell you.
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What’s that?
my team has used the KOP our 2nd and 3rd year. We used Rhino Treads in 2016 (our rookie year). We have been to Champs all 3 years. The KOP chassis is versatile and easy. No real reason to stray away unless you plan on getting extremely lighter or design a swerve system.
A big advantage of the KOP chassis is the same as the advantage of using the same custom chassis year after year: You can have an already-wired, already functional drive train on Kickoff day that you can start adding prototype upper mechanical systems to immediately, and that can eventually become your practice robot.
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Sure, consider it. But I know our robot wouldn’t be as good without using the AM14U4 (albeit massaged with 3CIM4U gearboxes bolted on and a different gear ratio), and we’re on our 16th year.
If you have the resources to make a custom drivetrain specifically suited for your superstructure without affecting your ability to build effective scoring mechanisms, then go for it. If you think it might harm your ability to score, the KOP chassis is a great option. If you aren’t 100% confident in your ability to build a working drivetrain, go with the KOP chassis.
5987 has made custom WCDs for the past two years because we can design it in a few hours, make the parts in-house, and can add specific mounting holes for our superstructure. In 2016 and 2017, before we had the design and manufacturing resources we have now, we used the KOP chassis and it was definitely the right decision. In my time on 423 we made a custom chassis every year, and we spent a lot of time and resources designing and building it. In hindsight, we likely would have done better with a KOP chassis that we could have had assembled on day one and then spend the rest of the season improving our scoring mechanisms.
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If you need to seriously consider the pros and cons of the kit drive, use the kit drive!
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