To prepare for the 2020 FIRST Robotics season, our team launched an offseason swerve drive project to educate and inspire new members to get involved in the mechanical design process. We hope to finalize the design and begin manufacturing within the next month or so, and build our drivetrain just before the season begins in January.
The swerve DOCUMENTATION outlining our design decisions and part design is finished! We will be adding more to our manufacturing processes and assembly once those two are done. Please leave any feedback.
Good news! Because of some clarifications in our manufacturing capabilities, we may be able to make at least one swerve module before the season begins, meaning we can test and decide if we want to use the module for the 2021 season. That said, our team has been hard at work on the CAM for these parts, and some discussions have arisen on using 3d printing technologies like a MarkForged to make manufacturing complicated parts much easier.
For example, this part would require multiple fixtures and operations to manufacture from aluminum but could be a short print that could end up just as strong with the use of continuous carbon fiber.
Thanks to all who followed! We are likely not going to be able to manufacture and test these modules until mid-2021 because of the pandemic, but we will be finishing up our documentation which includes design decisions, parts lists, and even CAM operations that our team has developed so we can get feedback from this wonderful community. As our team's 2021 season starts, we will be working on some other interesting projects like a double-flywheel variable hood-angle shooter (it's cool, trust me). Keep your eye out for those projects and happy holidays!
We have encoders on the wheel rotation and turntable, but no external motion sensing for the entire robot itself. We use these drivetrain encoders to estimate our position on the playing field.
is an encoder for the route also available ?
you need that for the Odometry