Team 1676 has participated in Memorial Day parades for a few years now. We actually do two, one on the Saturday and one on the Monday of Memorial Day weekend. Both are about 1 mile long (There's also a longer one in our school district's area that's about 5 miles in length which we've stayed away from since we always thought it might be too much for our robot to handle, but since we just drove our 2010 robot 5 miles (20 laps) during Relay for Life this past weekend, maybe we'll rethink that in the future
).
Wheels: We switch out our normal AndyMark plaction wheels for either rubber treaded wheels or KOP wheels. Much better for pavement use.
Battery: We use normal robot batteries, but incorporate a Y-cable (on left in below image) for
<15 second battery changes. We have one end hooked up to the robot, the other to the battery in the robot, and when we swap batteries, we hook up the free end to the new battery before disconnecting the old one, so the robot never turns off.''
Cart: We use our robot cart to both hold extra batteries and water (make sure you have water!) as well as carry the driver station. One person pushes the cart, while the driver and operator walk on either side while controlling the robot. We also attach what we call a "Pirate's Mast" to the cart to either display team/blue banners or American flags, depending on the event. We use a marine battery to power the driver station.
You can see our 2013 robot in action at a parade, as well as our on-the-fly battery changes, in this video from a Memorial Day parade last year:
http://www.youtube.com/v/yDlyu-aPnpU...t=714&end=2084
Let us know if you'd like any additional information.