[Ginger Power]

The GreenHorns built an H drive for Ri3D this year. We geared ours for between 3 and 4 fps. The reasoning is that we wanted higher torque and there is no need for a high speed strafe wheel imo. The slower strafe that we have allows for precision when stacking totes. We used a toughbox mini with a standard gear ratio and 1 cim motor. It seemed to work well, but I'm sure you could do it with just about any single cim gearbox as well.

As for picking the wheel up off the ground I've heard ideas for both springs and pneumatics thrown around. Using springs you would have suspension on the center wheel and therefore wouldn't need an active mechanism to go over the scoring platform. Using pneumatics, you'll probably end up with more weight, but it'll be a more solid solution imo. I would make an effort to get springs to work however. We have never had to clean the omni wheel rollers on our H drive although we are driving on non-pfficial carpet. 4607 has used omni wheels the past 2 years and I don't remember cleaning the rollers once. I don't believe it will be a problem. Overall I'm glad that people are taking an H drive into consideration for Recycle Rush. I think it will prove to be an effective drivetrain.