[EricH]

Originally Posted by mman1506

Doubling your wheels surface area does not double your traction theoretical or not. The only way to increase traction is to increase the weight of your robot or raise COF of your wheels to the carpet. I suggest reading this document http://www.simbotics.org/files/pdf/drivetraindesign.pdf

There is some debate as to whether increasing surface area in FRC applications will increase traction, with anecdotal evidence that more surface area does in fact increase traction. I believe someone was going to run a test, but I can't recall if they ever published results. Would be an interesting experiment to design, run, publish, and see if someone else can replicate it.

The basic premise is that widening the treads on the wheels--of all types--provides more room for wheel tread to interact with carpet. The interaction, at a micro level, isn't all that different than an athlete's cleats digging into the turf; wider wheels mean more places to put a spike on the cleats. The effect is seen as more traction to the robot. (If you really want to be technical, it's more of an increase in CoF than anything else--but it's seen as more traction.)

Now, it won't double the traction force--but you might get a pound or two across all however many wheels you've got.