Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Yes this is another poll. The one from last year was actually quite interesting.

The basic question is: "How many wheels are used in your drive train and why did you choose to use this approach?

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

We will have a 4.5wd.

6 Wheels will be powered, but only 4 on the ground constantly. ;)

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

In all fairness, I will start.
We are using 5 wheels. 4 sticky KOP wheels and a piston activated 5th wheel mounted perpendicular that drop down, lifting the back 2 wheels up. This will allow us to rotate onto target easier.

Edit: Wow, so much for being first.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

We are using 4, 4" plaction wheels. The real interesting part is that as it stands now, we are using 32 sprockets, on 12 loops of chain.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

I want to see a 1 wheel bot, that would be awesome.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

I couldn't agree more. That's why I requested pictures.:yikes:

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Treads all the way!

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

8 wheel drive is going to be common enough that I would highly recommend you add it to the poll. 2791 is doing 8 wheel.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

1771 is going with 8wd

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Team #2849, Ursa Major, (and I) are going with 12 Wheel Drive.

Why? It seemed like a good idea at the time ;-)

Honestly, because I am paranoid of getting stuck on those bumps and 12WD seemed like a good way to prevent that from happening.

Would 8WD been enough? Perhaps, but with each new crossing the bump video that gets uploaded to youtube, I grow more convinced that 12WD has its advantages...

Joe J.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Yeah I think a lot of teams will be going with 8wd (we are). The reason 488's robot tipped like that (like many 6wd drive robots will) is because a lot of their weight is distributed in the back. If you can keep your weight balanced correctly, even with 8wd drive, you wouldn't flop like that. (We watched our robot cross the bump on CAD, but haven't gotten the chance to test it in real life yet).

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

The low clearance of a standard chassis with 8 wheels scares me now that I see it getting high centered on the hump sideways. That just seems to be another plus for the using the KOP stand-offs. The big negative is raising one's CG.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Be aware that with a centered CoG, you will still have a pretty spectacular fall over the bump due to momentum unless you take it somewhat slowly. But not too slowly that you get defended easily. Driving is hard...

8wd shouldn't be high centering diagonally too much. 488's video basically demonstrated you have to be completely sideways to high center.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Agreed because of in my preference, 8 wheels will be common, even our design is tending to a design that is using more than 6 wheels (not telling how many) with a good reason behind it. 1/3 scale vex designs have come out and have shown the capabilities of a design with more that 6 wheels. Although an idea like 8 wheels may not be loved by all, I expect that something along the lines of that to be more successful do the the more balanced weight distribution through out movement on the field, and the placement of these wheels will also have an effect on the handling capabilities of a given robot. It will be at the competition though that we will see what chassis design is the most successful and winning.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Here
Here
Here (Danger PDF -- and a slow loading one at that)

Now a one wheeled FIRST robot, that would be a 1st.

Joe J.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

You could do like your delphi team of '07 did with 14 wheel drive.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Team 45 came up with a One Ball drive system a few years ago. Does that count?

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

816 is going with an 8wd this year.

It should work pretty well for us - as long as our driver remembers that getting air crossing the bump is a bad thing...

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Wasn't it two balls? (The robot was 2003's Mighty Mouse, which was ultimately not entered by 45, in favour of their other 2003 robot, Mighty Auk, which used more conventional treads. Mighty Mouse did see use by another team as a result of some extenuating circumstances.)

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

I agree, except in this case I think less is more.

We are going with 4 wheels this year after a demonstration showing the dynamics is much more stable than 8 wheels could ever achieve.

Most 8 wheel drives are counting on very low center of gravity, except I don't think you can count on that if you want to do any sort of hanging, or if the CG is anywhere near 10-12 inches off the ground.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Sounds like a swerve to me...

Team 2395 is doing 8wd this year.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

i suppose you could say that we're going with 12 wd... all will be powered... and all will stay in contact with the ground all of the time, and that's all i'll say. :p

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Tank drive me guessing?

4wd for us.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Hey Ken,

Long time, no see (though more my fault than yours).

But... ...there you go again making blanket statements that may come back to haunt you.

Of course it is possible to make an 8WD or even a 12WD that is less stable than a 4WD robot going over the bump, I would just caution you about making statements that beg to be proven wrong.

"There are no black swans" only requires 1 observation to be wrong. "Black swans are rare" is a safer statement that is less likely to put egg on the face of the speaker.

Joe J.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Team 148's robot will have 14 wheels in the drivetrain.

Seriously.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

I love blanket statements! It's probably going to come back to haunt me, but what I mean is all the flat 8 wheel drive I've seen is much less stable than the 4 wheel drive chassis I have in mind. Of course it's possible to make a 8 and 12 WD base stable when going over the bump, but that's beyond all the flat 8 WD I've seen (rocker bogey comes to mind, as well as other pivoted or pneumatically actuated chassis).

I was so sure of my gut feelings that I convinced my team to choose 4 over 8. I convinced them there is going to be a lot of fights around the bump, and sticking half your base out is probably not the best way to become the king of the hill.

I think this is going to come back to haunt me, but I tend to live dangerously these days...

Besides, I only chose the simple 4 WD because it is well within our manufacturing capabilities to produce. I would love to go crazy, but that will have to be another year in another game when I've gotten used to working with this team...


I am starting to be really scared of all the drive train that haven't been posted. Seriously.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

a 1 wheeled robot would be epic

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

176 will be going with a *modified* 6 wheel drive this year. ;)

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

we are going with eight wheel im going to be posting videos soon but we have so much power that we were able to drag a 115lbs man

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

With all those wheels teams are using, I see them having a problem making weight.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Team 1261 will be using 12.61 wheels on our drive. More like 10, but 12.61 is close enough.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

What I wanna know is where is the 7 wheel drive option? :D

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Conspiracy theory:

Andy Baker designed the bump so he could sell more wheels.

;)

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

MAN! I thought I was doing so well with 12WD.

Ah well. If you are going to be beat, you may as well get beat by the best. No shame in that. Well played JVN, well played...

However... ...One day, I am going to recover my FIRST Kingdom and I will rebuild my FIRST Design House and my FIRST Machine Shop... ...I will once again join the ranks of FIRST SupePowers, as it was in days of yore... ...When that day comes, you can only only IMAGINE how high N will be in my N Wheel Drive creations! The digits shall reach from sea to shining sea. Muhahahahahaaaaaaa!!!!*


Joe J.

*Spoken in an evil voice somewhat akin to Mojo Jojo's

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

To those who don't know how this is possible, take a look at 703's drivetrain from 2007: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/26312

Now just take that, replace the polycarb sides with the traditional stamped aluminum sheet (IFI style), paint it black with red anodized wheels and I bet you are close to what it will look like. I'm sure it will be another stunner just like the 148 bots have been since '07.

I am excited to see what team IFI pumps out this year, especially 148 after this news.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

8 Wheels total. 6" dia. Wide chassis. Corner wheels on the ground. Plaction in front, Omni's in back. Middle 4 wheels elevated 2". All powered. Center of Gravity around 7".

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Honestly, if I had included selections all the way up to 14 wheels, the poll would have been too big, IMHO. :)

This thread, at the time of this posting, has had 37 replies and 156 responses to the poll. The discussions are excellent and can only feed the imaginations and inspire the minds of those who read it. This is better than I had hoped!
Please keep the responses and votes coming.

So far: 4 wheel drivetrains leads the way with "Other" being second.
We have two single selections of 3 and 5 wheel drive.
I am still hoping for a one wheel drive. Fingers are crossed.:p

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

We have had some pretty satisfying results with a simple 4WDT (6 inch plaction wheels), with some edits and trimming off of the bottom and corners of the sideplate; I don't know about the rest of 1676, but I am satisfied with the results we have been getting.

Now I REALLY can't wait for next year. This year is going to definitely be full of amazing drive trains.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Not quite...;)

-Parker

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

14 wheel swerve?!?! :p

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

Yes it is so obvious now that you say that. 8WD fore/aft + 6WD left/right.

It's BRILLIANT!

...or...

it is a whole lot of bother not that much gain...

The truth will out.

Joe J.

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

703's 2007 robot is one of my favorite robots of all time. Looks like 148 is the early leader to become my favorite robot of the decade.

If I recall correctly, you made a post about 703's 14 wheeled drivetrain, saying that the reason it was so good may not have been the 14 wheels. The only way to prove if 14 wheels were the reason would be to test the same drivetrain with fewer wheels. I got the feeling that you thought 14 wheels were not necessary. So, this is a little suprising.

Edit: Here is the post: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=50

Re: Poll:2010 How many wheel drive are you using?
 

I don't know how I missed this one, but could the 14 wheels be bogey wheels?

Treads from 148? This could be interesting.