Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Z
Do you know why 4 wheel intake is so efficient?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by asid61
I'm not 100% sure, having not built one myself (no time, even in the offseason) but it appears to be that the totes keeps constant contact with the wheels, even when intaking a tote diagonally (such as 1114's landfill mining thins year).
I agree that you need some kind of container flipper capable of (imo) flipping in 5 seconds or less, for maximum efficiency.
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asid is pretty much right here - a four wheel intake is much, much faster at dealing with totes collected at odd angles than a two wheel intake. With the right geometry you can drive into a tote oriented horizontally relative to the robot and the robot will just spin the tote into the proper orientation without a second thought.
You can use either some kind of suspension / compliance in order to allow the pairs of wheels to articulate, or if you get the geometry right you can place the outer wheels slightly farther apart than the inner wheels, or both of these things - each of these ways seems to work.
You also need to get the right kind of traction material - a soft polyurethane is best. Colsons, kit wheels, etc. are too firm. Nitrile (white "marshmallow" wheels) are not tacky enough. Polyurethane drive rollers from McMaster work well, or you can buy polyurethane (surgical) tubing of the right OD and ID and attach them to custom wheels.