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Originally Posted by Rich Kressly
John, on a purely non-scientific note, one needs to watch very closely to see how 25 gets that "little extra" in a pushing match. In the past two years, for part of (nearly) every pushing match they are in they are actually not moving at all. Once they are in a desired position they stand still with almost no exertion on the motors or battery at all. As to how they get that done, you'll have to ask 25, but I do know, that at the end of a match they generally have happier and cooler drive motors than most opponents not to mention more left in the battery.
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Of course now every robot in the world is going to try to shove us around- thanks Rich !!!
As Bharat posted- we use brakes. At the flip of a switch we can lock up the entire drive train. It is very simple. Of course knowing when to use the brake is the key and that's what the drive team works out. Since we have six, wide wheel surfaces in contact with the ground I believe we get a little edge on robots with normal wheels.
And no, we dont defy the laws of physics but we do have a genius tech guy on the team named Mike Lubniewski who devotes a lot of time to thinking about improving the drives each year. (hence Bharat's avatar)
WC