Twitch

Twitch or Linkage Drive

FRC 1565 Think Tank Tech in Cambridge, Ontario created a linkage drive in 2007/2008. The intial video's showed good mobility and speed. This drive was one of the canidate drives to prototype.

The drawings below show our interpretation of the drive setup.

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  Twitch - x drive

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  Twitch - y drive

VEX Prototype

In the summer of 2008 we built a prototype version of the linkage drive. Each wheel had a direct drive motor. The twitch action was performed by rack/pinion gear set up. It took about five second to do a full cycle. The software was set up to be arcade drive on the right joystick, the left joystick controlled the twitch function. The software allowed the driver to pick the "virtual" front of the robot.

In the pictures below you can see the cycle take place.

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  Twitch wheels in N/S position

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  Wheels 1/2 through the travel

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  Twitch wheels in E/W position