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Swerve Drive

Project Type

Mechanical Design

Date

January 2020

Location

Penfield, NY

Role

Lead Designer

"Swerve Drive" refers to a common ground propulsion system in the FIRST Robotics Challenge (FRC) competition. Swerve Drive's main advantage compared to traditional drive systems is it can propel the vehicle in any given direction through the use of 360-degree steerable wheels. For this project, I independently developed a completely from scratch design that was particularly suited to my robotics team's manufacturing abilities. The prototype that was built utilized water jet cut sheet metal and complex 3D-printed components to create a compact, light, cheap, and versatile system. Once the prototype system was complete and tested, I designed a new version that included a 1 to 1 encoder ratio to improve the feedback on the wheel position.

Swerve Rev1

Pictured is the final design for the prototype swerve module. It utilizes a sheet metal and 3D printed construction for a simple, light, and high-performance solution.

Swerve Rev1 Testing

Test of prototype drive base with 4X swerve modules

Swerve Rev2

This is the design revision for the swerve module that improves upon issues found with the initial prototype design. The main functional difference is the new module adds an additional gear ratio that provides the positional encoder a 1-to-1 ratio with the direction of the drive wheel. Additionally, structural changes to the design made the new module over 1 lb. lighter than the previous iteration while being structurally stronger.

Swerve Rev2 Lower ISO

Lower view of revised module design

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