Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesCH95
They are also not designed to lift the robot completely off of the ground. The four 3/4in cylinders can generate a maximum combined force of ~106lbf, so assuming our robot weighs at least 107lb the center wheels will still be sharing some of the load, especially sideways where the air cylinder mounts are weakest.
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First of all, gorgeous and highly effective looking robot you have there. I have no doubt this will be a great season for you. And pneumatic brakes will definitely be an advantage to shooting this year. But, on the same subject even if your robot is not entirely off the ground, the pads will still be making solid contact with the ground. Meaning that when someone hits you with your brakes down, the robot will attempt to go in that direction and your main resisting force will be the rigidity of the (what looks like) 1/4 inch steel shaft. Even a quarter inch of movement of the whole robot would be devastating to the straightness of that shaft, particularly if the brake pads digs into the carpet and starts to twist from the horizontal. I would recommend some form of linear bearings to prevent this from happening. However to be clear, I'm no expert and this is just my 2 cents based on what I've seen from using brakes on robots.