Swerve Motor Project

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Role: FIRST Robotics team - Mechanical Team Lead

Summary: I designed the team’s first version of the swerve drive module allowing the team to win the Excellence in Engineering Awards

Skills: Solidworks, Autodesk Inventor, Creo, Machining (including CNC machines with G-code), Team Management, BOM, CAM, Engineering Drawing, Tolerance Stacking

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I was part of the FIRST Robotics Competition for 4 years and in my third and fourth years, our team decided to use a swerve drive after analyzing game plays from previous competitions. During my third year, our team simply implemented the swerve drive module from an open source. However, we realized the module was not ideal for the purpose of the team’s robot - mainly it was too sensitive with spur gears, had exposed motors near the ground, had poor manufacturability, and was too heavy. 

In my fourth year, my last year with the team, I lead a project to design our own version of the swerve drive module. I utilized several different CAD software (Autodesk Inventor, Solidworks, and Creo) to design and create drawings, and metal room machines (CNC, mill, lathe, etc) to fabricate the parts. I decided to use a worm gear, instead of a spur gear, for the rotation motor to make the system more controllable. Also, I rerouted the gear system so it is no longer near the ground. Lastly, I optimized the design intent of the module and removed some unnecessary components to increase manufacturability and decrease the mass.

After successfully designing the module and installing it on the robot, the team was able to perform better in the competition - we won the Excellence in Engineering award which is given to the team with the best approach to the design process.

From this project, I was able to not only polish my CAD skills but also deeply understand the principles of design intents and work with the team to maximize the efficiency of the design processes.