[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by Jared341

I could backdrive the Wormbox at IRI by hand quite easily, so I would imagine it is pretty efficient. While high efficiency is generally a good thing, it does mean that the benefits to a defensive robot's drive train are limited.

I would suggest looking into something like team 25's servo-actuated brakes if being pushed is something you absolutely cannot tolerate.

We did a similar brake setup with pneumatics in 2007. The idea was that if we were partially stalled going up a ramp at the end of the match, we could still get 15 points without rolling down it by having the drivetrain lock in place.

I wasn't on the team at the time, but the NUTRONs 2004 robot had a worm geared reduction on each of its 4 pneumatic wheels. The robot suffered from terrible instability for a number of reasons. First being 4 pneumatic wheels caused the oh so famous "bounce turn" we see less and less these days with the 6WD kitbot. The robot was also quite top heavy as it had a large extending arm and turret at the top of it. Often when driving around the field the robot would tend to teeter forward or back as it went from full speed to fully stopped. I'm thinking the extremely difficult to backdrive (not highly efficient) worm gears had something to do with this. As soon as the driver removed power to the wheels, the robot would literally stop on a dime.

I'll try to find some pictures to show you guys.

-Brando