Traction is Key >^..^<
 

Posted by Elgin C at 03/20/2001 1:08 PM EST


Engineer on team #237, Sie-H20-Bots, from Watertown High School / NVCC.



As the title states I believe that traction is key if you have any chance at winning. Our first robot that we built had the stock straight out of the box 6&quot; wheelchair wheels on them. We had very little traction going up the ramp and so we made our ramp extender feature of the robot act as a counter balance to make it up the incline. But that didn't work because we ended up tipping ourselves over a few times. Fortuanately we righted our selves in enough time to get into the endzone but lost major points for our alliance.

Our remedy: All four wheels were burned with a woodburner with a space in between all of the burns. If you do this make sure you do it in a well ventilated area though!!! The wheels give off alot of smoke when being burned.