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Re: Examples of when it is not advantageous to be lightweight
The normal force on your wheels matters for more than just pushing matches. In addition to reducing the amount of force you can apply, wheel slippage due to overcoming your static friction also results in faster tread wear. Depending on your wheel choice, quantity of spares, and drivetrain design, this may or may not be a significant issue.
On a different note, the less your robot weighs, the less inertia it has and the less momentum it builds up in motion. Lowering this is good for a maneuverable robot. However, there have been games in which you wanted a higher inertia. Namely the games involving mobile goals (2002, 2004, 2009), where the more your robot weighed, the better you would be able to control these goals (since you have control over a larger portion of the collective robot/goal mass).
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