View Single Post
  #59   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 25-11-2012, 22:44
DanielDTech's Avatar
DanielDTech DanielDTech is offline
Captain
FRC #0714 (Panthera)
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Rookie Year: 2009
Location: Newark, NJ
Posts: 37
DanielDTech is a glorious beacon of lightDanielDTech is a glorious beacon of lightDanielDTech is a glorious beacon of lightDanielDTech is a glorious beacon of lightDanielDTech is a glorious beacon of lightDanielDTech is a glorious beacon of light
Re: Be afraid... Be VERY Afraid

Quote:
Originally Posted by ratdude747 View Post
I'm going to guess that part of it is weight reduction. It looks like it could be made very light.

It also looks very compact.

One thing that makes it unique is that this allows for both independent wheel drive AND two speeds/torques w/o the extreme cost/weight/space penalty that would result from one using 4 AM2/Supershifters. Even compared to using 4 dewalts (not as tall but much longer in the wheel axis), it looks very space efficient.

It also looks like it is meant to be mounted through a hole in a sheet metal base/pan. Perhaps even a sheet of plywood or other flat material. Maybe this is to simplify frame design? (Just a pan with 4 wheel holes?)

Or maybe it could be mounted in a lazy susan (the missing part mentioned) and used as a crab module? There have been 2 speed crab drives before (I know 1625's done it) but they all used non-independent drive systems (1625 used two drive shafts with miter gears to drive 6 wheels, 3 per shaft).

Another aspect I see is that the Cim is off center. Perhaps some sort of a counterweight?

Last, Perhaps another benefit of the design is that if you tossed a tread on the wheel (if it had such a tread), you'd already have a spare wheel you could toss in. Then again, this "automated spare tire" effect is also
Very nice guesses! The unit is indeed very compact and light; it needs to be, since there will be more than one on the robot. But the big secret here is actually much simpler than any of these great educated guesses.