What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

I was wondering what types of drive trains were made this year?

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

I lack the picture at the moment but I will find one soon.

We took your basic 4 wheel tank drive and tilted the wheels inward. Because that was unclear: we set the wheels so that the top of the wheels was closer to the center of the robot than the bottom of the wheels. The axles, motors, chains, sprockets, everything was mounted at this new angle. It actually was pretty easy to make and did not weigh anything extra. Usually the side of one tank drive is enclosed in a long thin rectangular box. We just tiled this box and mounted them against the angles we cut on the crosspieces that went across the front and back of the robot. (about 20 degrees for us). Putting the wheels like this also makes the robot very low to the ground.

This made the robot very hard to move off course. To help us maneuver more easily we placed two casters on the front of the robot. These casters were mounted to hinges. The hinges were positioned at 90 degree angles to the bar that made up the front of the robot. The casters were on the rotating flap of the hinges (on the underside) and on top sits an extruded Al stick. These sticks are connected by a pneumatic which is suspended in the air between them. When the pneumatic fires (parallel to the front of the frame) it presses the extruded Al pieces down which presses the hinges which rotate at a 90 degree angle to the frame and press the casters down.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

We (team 217) used a 6 wheel drive base runing off 2 Chip motors and 1 fisher price (per side). Lots of speed and pushing power, without having to shift gears.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

We used a basic 2 wheel drive using the given transmissions in the rear and omni wheels in the front. It drives well and with 4 CIM motors has plenty of pushing power. The omni wheels allow for great turning and control it is a nice setup for our purposes.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

Basic 4 wheel drive (modified kit drivetrain), one speed, pneumatic tires.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

We used 1 CIM per side running in to a DeWALT transmissions driving 3 wheels on each side.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

We built a 6 wheel drive train ruyn off of 2 CIMs per side through a custom one speed gearbox. We couldn't use the standard gearbox since we needed our CIMs to face eachother and have the output shaft go straight through. This shaft was then use to power a direct drive system. We used U-joints so our shafts could be at an angle so we could lower our center wheel by 1/32". The shaft then powered the wheels through custom-made miter gear-boxes.

It was a lot of work, but it has ended up being very effective. No chains to worry about throwing and noone has been able to push us. Even though we lost to them, in the final round, we pushed Adam-bots (245) all the way across the field with no problem.

I'll post pictures of our transmission later.

-Tony K

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

We used the kit transmission 4-wheel tank drive option with 48 tooth sprockets on 8.5 X 2 inch skyway beadlok wheels. Works really well!

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

omni BABY!!!

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

1 CIM & DeWALT transmission per side, each driving one 12.5" pneumatic wheel. Ball casters on the 4 corners. Manuevers well, but we could have used some more traction. Also got one of the ball castors hooked over the pipe on the base of a goal, and couldn't get back off.

Next year we're going to make the DeWALT's shift... I'm don't think I saw anyone else using the DeWALT transmissions at the Peachtree Regional.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

Front wheel drive, 2 powered wheels. On the back are dual tri-casters. Can't push anything, including a tetra. Only one speed.

Here are pictures of the drive train, wheels, and tri-casters.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

Tank treads, with a lowered idler wheel so that we can turn on a dime.

All of this powered by 4 speed automatic transmisson, which uses 4 Chips.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

6 wheels driven by 2 chips put through the kit transmission. Its two speed shift on the fly though. By moving the transmissions left or right, using a pneumatic, we tighten a belt on one side of the transmission or the other. Different pulley ratios give us two different speeds. Nice simple 2 speed shift on the fly.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

for 1126 we had 6WD tank steering with a 4 speed transmission. it does great and it shifts automatically. it is simply amazing we also designed our own wheels. good luck every one!

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

We used two drive wheels in the back powered by two chippy motors a piece and in the front we used two swivel casters.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

4 knobby pneumatic tires.

4 CIMs and 2 FP motors.
FP has a single gear reduction to match the CIM motor no load speed
Primary drive #25 chain.
Final drive #35 chain
no shifting transmission

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

we have 6 whell 2 speed. and btw 114, congrats on your design award, your very cool crab drive definitely deserved it. Even if the award did mean having a poor frehsmen trip on the cable protector/

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

heh i miss Holonomic, being one of the few omni drives last year was fun but we didn't see a practicle use for it this year so we went with a 4 tread tank design with a 3 speed trannny powered by 4 cim's. our robot get's arround at about 10 fps in 2nd gear so our 3rd gear might not get it's use lol, it's too bad we didn't use that 12 speed gear box that we had our hands on :evil grin:

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

We made a six motor drive with two speeds and six beautiful wheels. :)

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

This is the only way to fly.... (Well, swerve drives are nice, too.)

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

Ball casters at the front. Double kit wheels in the center, (chain in between) single kit wheels at the back. Tank drive. Stock kit transmissions, stock at this point ratios, 4 cims, 9 fps. Water cut sprockets and spacers all around, Machined "hats" to hold the driving sprockets on the transmissions. Shipped and bringing sprockets that if installed will either lower speed to 7fps or raise it to about 11fps. One time change and then off the the scale. We may have to loose a pair of Cims if we can't make weight. Plans at this point to add belting to the center stock wheels. Drove nicely with out the complete arm on, but too much wheel spinning. Turns centered at the place I expected it to.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

Six wheels and 2 speeds (shift on the fly).
btw, i don't think mixing #of wheels w/speeds makes an accurates survey if you want to look at the percentage,

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

6 Wheels, only 2 powered by the Gearboxes in the KOP. 2 cims per side. We used the conveyor belt material from McMaster Carr on the outside circumference of the wheels in the KOP. We cut it using a jig saw...it was pro:D lol. And of course we were wearing safety goggles while doing it. We also have two omnis in the front for turning. It worked really well for being that the drive train portion was assembled mostly be freshmen.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

I would concurr with that. The survey seems all out of whack. I sure would like to see the two walking robots, the nine two wheeled (skids? balancing?) robots, the 14 robots with a 3+ speed transmission, and the ten robots that are something even beyond all these categories. Also, it looks like roughly 40 people have robots that won't be going anywhere because only about 76 out of 111 have any sort of propulsion unit (1 speed, 2 speed, <2 speed). I'd sure like to see those fourty 50' arms on the stationary bases.

Wow, from the poll results, it looks like we are going to have some killer robots at the regionals. I can't wait!

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

Each team also has multiple CD posters, so various members of one team might be voting for the same thing making the poll misleading. I too would like to see those things though ;-) How many teams ARE using 3+ speeds, that is SO unnecessary!

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

Well, there was a 2 wheel robot at Sacto. I don't remember whose it was, but it was fairly simple. They had one pneumatic tire on each side but only around 1/4-1/2 inch clearance. They files down all the edges and actually made thier base somewhat like a trapezoid so there were no acute angle touching the ground. It seemed to be surprisingly stable and had an awesome turning radius (read: 0).

-Tony K

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

We used an omniwheel in each corner (that's four) and then two driven wheels with waffle tread, one in the middle of each side of the frame. We used just two chips, and built our own transmission.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

We took the kit transmition and turned our robot into a six (6) wheel drive system, http://sjharobotics.org/media/pictures/100.JPG , that has 4 different speed programmed into the code. We run at 75% our speed without holding any button. We also have 25%, 50%, and 100% speeds. The link to the picture is actually of our robot about two weeks before ship time. We actually traded out one of the motors because it was to loud, but the new one isn't as loud. We can actually program out robot to go even faster, but we drive well at 75%, and have great control as well. At 100% our robot is very fast, and at 125% we fear it is too sensitive, making the robot spin in place if you move the control even a little.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

447 used a very simple 2 wheel, 2 speed drive train. Just one Chip per side into a AndyMark tranny ( Very Nice Tranny I highly Suggest to Everyone ). Also a Korny Lak 4" Transwheel(OmniWheel) in each corner. This gave us "killa turning", speed, pushing power, and stability needed for a 13' robot, tetra stackin' machine.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

We use 4 CIM Motors driving 6 wheels (6 inch wheel chair wheels)
Lots of power! Center wheels are slightly larger pnematic tires for easier turning and better traction. :D

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

Our drive train uses 4 CIM motors each powering our four mecanum wheels. Yes that right we built our own set of mecanum wheels. Our team built molds and poured 48 individual rollers. Here are some inventor file of the drive system. http://www.first.udsd.k12.pa.us/AIA2...eels/index.htm Here is a link to video of it driving sideways http://www.first.udsd.k12.pa.us/AIA2005/video.html The drive train is performing great. Royal Assault won the Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award at the Pittsburgh Regional. We will be at the Philly Regional in 2 weeks and at nationals so stop by the pits and check it out.

Re: What type of drive train did you make this year?
 

2 center drive using the kit gearboxes with 4 CIMs and 8 inch wheelchair wheels. Typical chain drive, with only a 15 tooth sprocket on the transmissions.

It's actually very easy to make center wheel drives working and turning well. All you really need are Delrin or similar material skids/idler wheels at all 4 corners, and a little care to balance the bot. It doesn't have to be a perfect 50/50 balance all around, but the closer you get the better.

Two wheels have some great advantages over even 6 wheel designs- chief of all is how simple and easy they are to make. If you ever get the chance, drive a decent two wheeled bot. You'll be amazed at how easy it is to get it where you want it at high speeds. It's the difference between a sports car and an old truck.

-Andy A.