Yes Ian, but can you turn?
We had four 5.75" cylinders covered in conveyor belt material and we COLUD NOT TURN (23 sq inches on the carpet) :( So we made two new cylinders without material and grooved them. We can hopefully turn now.

Wayne Doenges

I suppose it may not be popular to point out the fact that traction really doesn't have anything to do with contact surface area. The only ways surface area will help is that the weight of the robot will be better distributed over the area in contact with the ground. Also, if the treads dig into the carpet, then an additional surface area will help. I'd be much more concerned with getting more weight over my drive wheels than maximizing surface area.

Matt

Speaking somewhat for Ian . . .

Yes, we can turn :) It may, however, be that turning and the 1 sq. ft.+ of area are mutually exclusive. A minor setback, perhaps, but nothing terribly, I think.

We'll get some pictures up in the gallery soon.

Matt: It's a beautiful thing. Friction is our friend.

traction paradyme
 

The more surface you have the less traction you have!!!!!\

Counter intuitive????

If you stand on one foot and weight 200 pounds you have all your force on one foot and your greatest possible traction. If you stand on two feet now you divide your weight to 100 and 100 and have less traction on either foot. The more surface you apply the less traction you have in any one place!!!!!

turning
 

We have 8" wide drums covered with industrial conveyor belt material. Not only do we NOT have problems turning, but we can push over 600 lbs worth of goals and people in them as well.

We did a lot of testing of surface area to traction. We spent a long time on this and discovered that with some materials, grip to the ground can increase with surface area.

The best way to think about it is like this. It took a lot of convincing to get the team to get it. But some materials act like velcro on carpet. Now which would you say is harder to pull apart, a one inch section of velcro or a 8 inch section? The 8 inch section can really be hard to pull apart if it's deeply imbedded in the mating strip of velcro. We shall see how it does in competition.

Jeremy

JUST LOOK AT MY TITLE!!!!
 

YES, true the paradyme is true but one also has to tak e into the counter force pushing back as the weight moves foreward. In turn, appliing a whole lot of dependence on friction instead of downward force on your drive train in a small area.

being the bruteforce specialist, and having my docterate on the subject i know that having downward force is not the equivelant to have traction (friction is).....in otherwards we used friction to achive the same outcome.





"MY NAME IS MATT FOLEY AND I AM A MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER!" Cris Farley (matt foley SNL)

AND JUST TO TELL EVERYBODY THE
ROBOT'S NAME FOR TEAM 810
(though unnaficially)
HAS BEEN CHANGED TO....

THE MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER !!!!!!!!!!!

Hmm, steve looks like he's going either through robot withdrawel or going hyper on his new found web site. well, i won't complain. :D

Oh dear.
 

Oh no! Steve found Chief Delphi!!

Run for your lives, and pray this site isn't held together by wire ties!

OH NO!!! KEEP STEVE AWAY FROM ANY SHARP, POINTY OBJECTS!!! HE'LL CUT ALL THE WIRE TIES!!!!

lol, that was funny... steve, and the compressor, and the wire ties...lol. :D

eliminate the choice
 

i know there is a fine line between awesome tracktion w/ torque and little traction with good speed. we beg to differ!
how we do this i cannot tell but i can give a few monster specs!

196 square inches of traction at 4fps
16 square inches of traction at 9fps

________________________

JUST FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

WAIT A SECOND WAS THAT LAST POST TRUE?





I DON'T KNOW!! DO YOU?


WHAT ABOUT THE FORMALITY OF SPEECH?

AM I MAKING SENSE?
IS THIS THING ON?
IS 810 REALLY JUST A LIEING ROOKIE TEAM?
YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO FIND OUT IN THE RING!!

U KNOW Y?
BECAUSE...................
WOOOOOOPS GOT TO GO!
I JUST FOUND A WIRE TIE THAT NEEDS CUTTING!!!!! SUPER STEVE TO THE RESCUE!!!!!!

our traction
 

our team is making our own wheels from 6" round stock aluminum. we customized them with meat tenderizer treads we specially sut into them, and spokes that are pretty cool. I am gonna get a photo of them soon and i will post it.:)


Greg
(badjokeguy)

Re: traction
 

wow....i remember when marcos said that, hehe, we were wrong