Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronica1
I am thinking the same thing, but I am having issues see how they are getting enough force to give the wheel traction because won't most the weight still be on the 4 outer wheels?
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It depends on the angle of the fork. As the wheels turn, if they are geared correctly, they will actually try to walk down more under the robot and put additional force on themselves. Think of the way that a rear wheel drive car transfers weight to the rear when it accelerates. In this case you aren't shifting the robots weight, you're using the leverage of the drive to push down into the floor harder.
As to the why: every tried to get 5 legs of a stool all the same length? Articulating that wheel is necessary - pneumatically or otherwise. I'd guessing this is a way of not using more pneumatics.
We have a little bit of familiarity with a slide-drivetrain. We tried one in 2008 but we hard-connected the wheels to the frame and quickly discovered why you absolutely MUST have mechanical compliance to insure all the wheels are on the ground. What they have here appears to be a refinement of their 2010 drivetrain.