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Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri
My $.02...
In this game, wouldn't you want a design that produces far more torque than that required just to move the robot?
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Not Always.
The torque/speed trade off we all face when building a drive train pushes us in different directions. While the majority of winning bots have had a great deal of torque (many have multiple gears, but not all), some favored top speed. I suppose that, given the speeds at which we are limited just by drivabilty, even the fastest bots still had enough torque to accelrate up to speed rather quickly.
I surprised that the issue of turning hasn't come up yet. Assuming for a moment that you are building a 4 wheel bot, getting it to move forward requires a certain amount of torque, but turning it will likely require more. This topic has been covered very throughly, but it's still common for teams to find that they over geared their bot and it can't overcome the stiction of it's wheels being pulled across the carpet during a turn. This usually results in tripping breakers and short battery life along with no/poor turning.
I highly recommend you take a look at Chris Hibner's
White Paper on drive train basics. I don't know that it will shed much light on your original question, but will probably give you an idea of the forces involved in turning a 4 wheel bot. This might be a good starting point.
-Andy A.