At first this year I didn’t think that the drive would be extremely important but now I have noticed that it could become more important than ever. So with a holonomic function of the drive it would be easier to get around a blocking robots, also easier to block. So what do you think about this? How important is the holonomic (forgive me if I am spelling this wrong) function?
I thought other robots aren’t allowed to restrict your movement.
I think he means robots that are blocking you from dumping stars over. As in just quickly strafe to the side and then dump quicker than they can get to you again and block.
However, if you can throw stars over well, blocking becomes much less feasible.
I don’t think changing from normal drive to holomonic drive would have disadvantages, other than less torque.
Here’s my opinion. Holonomic would be insanely important this year because it would add the ability for easy corrections if you turn and end up a bit off, it would allow easier alignment for the stars, and it would be easier because of the position of the driver (You’re using depth reception to align the robot to the stars). Another thing, if you are using holonomic, I think that it might be a good idea to switch the strafing and forward-backward controls on the joystick (Instead of Channel 3 for Forward-Backward and 4 for Strafing, it would be 3 for Strafing and 4 for Forward-Backward), mainly because it would be easier control and less confusing.
Tank drive seems to be the way to go to me. Any time spent moving sideways is time wasted. It’s easier to just make a simple tank drive and have plenty of time for practice, that way you don’t have to adjust, you do it right the first time.
XDrive might not be as efficient, but if you are doing a lot of sideways movement, XDrive will save a lot of time.
We plan on doing a 6 motor tank drive with strafe wheels, so we can maneuver around easily and be fast at collecting stars.
Personally I don’t think a holonomic drive would be as efficient due to its space constraints and motor distribution.
Just so we’re all on the same page, any drive with the ability to strafe is holonomic. I do think an X-drive will be useful because all motors are running when the robot is moving forward/backward/sideways. Diagonal motion is harder to control and therefore less common. An H-drive is useful for diagonal motion, or when you want to dedicate 6 motors to the drive, but these situations, at least in my experience, are less common.
^ Another thing, is it me or the name ‘X Drive’ sounds like some type of futuristic thing from Star Trek?
Love it, it so does. Just as long as it doesn’t become a warped drive 
. But to add to the convo, it seems seeing the Singapore matches that there will be a lot of blocking. But we must remember that there are objects (stars, cubes) that fall in the path of the “perfect” strafe.
unless you are going to do a 8 motor X-Drive i do not recommend using one because the slow speed and “lower” (if not built very well) structure… i do however agree with the idea of moving quickly out of the way of a blocker but i would use a H-Drive… maybe 4 motor normal 2 motor strafe…
I thought holonomic drives are theoretically sqrt(2) times faster than H-Drives/tank drives.
Theoretically. In practice they are almost always slower than their tank drives counterpart.
Unless you can make holonomic drives as awesome as how Wingus and Dingus does it:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAkevvawq64
@siam How does a robotics video FILMED by a team get taken down for copyright infringement!?
The music in the back round? Most events use personal music play lists that are not licensed to be used for large events and definitely not licensed to be recorded.
@tabor473 That’s what I guessed it was, but still, extremely annoying! Does anyone have another copy of the video?
I can’t find a second copy of the same video, but here is a link to their robot skills runs (same robot): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY3jaVONeHg
*Programming skills
Look at 8059’s pictures posted on the forums too. You can see a lot of the X-Drive just from these pics.
https://vexforum.com/t/8059d-catapult-hybrid-singapore-vex-2016-edition-reveal/35633/1
You can double up motors on two wheels to get some extra torque without going all the way to 8. Gear them together or chain them. Takes a bit more room though. The initial movement is what is needed.