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Re: Hex Kiwi Drive
Interesting idea,
Something to think about is that it will be really hard to guarantee that all 6 wheels are contacting the floor and transferring force. This is especially true since there are no real specifications on the flatness of the field that get measured during setup
Most groups that use force-vector drive trains (kiwi,mecanum) either rely on flexibility in the chassis to help the wheels touch the floor at all times or they limit themselves to 3 wheels.
It may not matter if there is not uniform contact for this implementation as each wheel will contribute less to the overall robot motion so the loss of any single wheel should have less of an impact. If the robot is sitting on three wheels, two or more of which are adjacent there will still be strange behavior.
A way to get around this could be to use the a suspension. one implementation could be similar to the VersaDrop sold by Vex pro with the pressure regulated down just low enough to not cause the pneumatic cylinders to deploy when pressurized. With this system, when a wheel encounters a dip or sag in the floor it will follow the contour and stay in contact.
That said a simple proof of concept would make all of these concerns unnecessary.
Good luck!
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2004 - 2012: Team 1100
2013 - ????: Team 131
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