[KrazyCarl92]

I had been toying with the idea of making a simple test bed for finding coefficients of firction earlier this summer while doing some drivetrain CAD.
I was thinking a piece of plywood with carpet, polycarbonate, and HDPE covers that would tilt with a window motor and some sort of sensor to detect angle (pot, encoder, gyro, accelerometer, etc.). Thought it might be a good preseason project with basic motor control, sensor use, and automation.

Then I ran into that dilemma about testing a single wheel/piece of tread vs. testing an entire robot. I think the main problem for most teams (including ours) in testing their actual robot drivetrain configuration is that by the time there is a robot with that particular drive configuration to test, it's already well past the point in the season to make use of that information for design purposes.

Maybe the drivetrain skeleton is finished by week two or so...would you really have the time or resources to restart from scratch with your gearbox based on that information at that point in the season? In some cases it might be as simple as a sprocket size change, but this isn't a one size fits all approach. I can see where a team that uses the same or similar drive configurations from year to year could easily make use of this kind of test bed prior to a point of no return in their design. Even then, the exact CoG, wheel position, weight, etc. might not match those of this year's robot.

Does anyone have thoughts on how a test bed like this could be used in season to produce useful results prior to the drive train design phase of the season (like gathering information in days 3-5 of build)? My question deals more with the utility and practicality of such an apparatus in the actual season rather than the theory, design, or production of the apparatus.