pic: FRC 1293 Drive System CAD
 

Re: pic: FRC 1293 Drive System CAD
 

Looks awesome, Where do you get your treds from?

Re: pic: FRC 1293 Drive System CAD
 

weight?

Re: pic: FRC 1293 Drive System CAD
 

We get the belt donated from a local sponsor (I'm not sure who), but the belt is manufactured by http://www.unichains.com/

The weight is about 20lb/side. A drivable chassis with bumper mounts, electronics, and everything required basically to move is 70lb. We're not done cheesing the interior yet, though, and hope to drop another 5-10lb before jetting it.

Re: pic: FRC 1293 Drive System CAD
 

70 pounds sounds really good for this year. If your hanging mechanism and kicker weigh more than 50 pounds, your chassis isn't what needs weight reduction. :) (shamelessly stolen from mr. forbes)

Re: pic: FRC 1293 Drive System CAD
 

Where have I read that before? :)

Big drop when it crests the bump.....hope it survives if you plan on driving over.

Re: pic: FRC 1293 Drive System CAD
 

For those interested about the belting. It is a product of unichain, and it is the "Uni-QNB with Rubber" belting. Heres a picture of it in the flesh from their catalog.



Also, heres a picture of it from our 2007 bot.



This is some amazing stuff. It's original purpose is as conveyor belting, but as a tread system it is terrific. The links are 1" long each and are easily removed. They have incredible traction, and are very flexible along their joints. Also, they interact with a sprocket on the other side that is very easy to water jet out (given you use the specs provided in the catalog).

We're still working on the cheese and bumper mountings, but we're hoping to get her once again back on the Jenny Craig, this time pre-cut. (Our 2007 bot had quite the post-waterjet cheesing going on once we realized we're 5lb over)

Re: pic: FRC 1293 Drive System CAD
 

I'm sorry if I don't understand, but what advantage does the robot gain from this tread system over the out-of-the-box raised one included in the KOP? Besides that, looks awesome and I'm amazed at the CAD and machining skill.

Re: pic: FRC 1293 Drive System CAD
 

Well, there are a few advantages and a few disadvantages as with any system.
The two main advantages are the center of gravity and the climbing ability. The center of gravity for our drive train is only around 3" off the ground, which would be difficult to achieve with the kit bot and makes it more likely to tip over. The tread system also helps to maintain traction when going over the bump, since the entire bot can follow the slope, increasing the contact area and decreasing any bouncing motion.

Past those, it integrates the chain run directly inside in a way that it's almost impossible for the chain to come off, even without a tensioner, while protecting it. It also lets us achieve some nifty styling options that couldn't be done with a kitbot, but that's getting into opinion.

The disadvantages are the usual with going custom - the need for fabrication, longer time to get a driving bot, potential for mishaps in the actual design, etc. but we feel that our experience with tread systems in past years and the availability of sponsors to do fabrication makes it worth our time.