Quote:
Originally posted by Stud Man Dan
The suspension would have been of great use on this years game.. it would have kept all 4 wheels in contact with the surfaces at all times.. while battling on the edge of the ramp ( at carpet and the top ) many times whoever got most traction could win.. no matter how strong the drive train. This sort of suspension would be of great gain in that situation
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actually, the easiest way to do that would not be a suspension per se, but merely have one of the axles on a pivot of some sort. If you don't quite understand what i'm getting at, take a quick glance at the back two wheels of this
robot. They pivot freely so as to always keep surface contact.
There were a couple robots that i remember at nationals that had similar designs (can't remember numbers though). It could be done with a swerve drive like this (since it is coaxial, you shouldn't run into chain or motor alignment problems). The advantage of a pivoting system like this is that it will always keep the weight equally devided among the four wheels. A traditional suspension will keep all wheels on the ground, but different wheels will apply differing amoungts of force to the ground (making it less efficient.