[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by marshall

Actually, a low COM is not the only key to not flipping over. As crazy as it may sound, our originally tall robot (1 inch shy of max height) that we had in Palmetto could tip over crossing defenses despite having a COM that was only 5~6 inches above the ground.

The second key is not the COM in the static case but the overall location of weight in the dynamic case which can be aided by distributing weight out to the edges of the robot.

Granted, I'm not a physics whiz and I'd love to have someone like Ether comment on this but I believe it to be true based on our experience with adding ankle weights to our robot in Palmetto and seeing the same thing work for another team here at the last NC District event.

Adding weight to the edges would greatly increase the rotational inertia of your robot. So you'd rotate slower and less for a given input of rotational energy. Also, more weight means a stronger gravity vector to resist any torque from motors or defenses that are trying to turn you over.