[mzitz2k]

Veselin,

The cross hatch material that you used is similar to the material that we used last year, just we used the "rough top" instead of the cross hatch. Our team lathed down some stock wheel-chair wheels and used carpet adhesive to attach the material to the wheel. Then, we screwed the material into the wheels by using a simple pattern. If I were to guess, I would say that we used about 20-30 screws per wheel on a 6" wheel, which may sound like a lot, but that is what it took to keep the material from ripping off. We also oozed epoxy in between where the two ends of the material met and then we simply filed it down so that it was smooth with the material. The nice thing about this method is that yes you must put the material on again and again, but you can tear it off the wheels if you remove the screws because eventually the epoxy wears away and the carpet adhesive is not too terribly strong. We changed our material before each competition and also after our last match on Friday (for the finals the next day).

Like you said, the material is great for the carpet, but wear does become an issue. As for the rough top, it was nearly perfect for the ramp last year - the teeth of the material seemed to mesh just so nicely. It was hard for other robots to push us off the HDPE, but that was due to our wedges (picture above) - not so much the wheel material.

I'm not sure that I completely understand your "wheel notches" that your team used. Do you have any pictures or could you expand on this a little for us? Thanks!