[Andy Baker]

Matt,

This is a novel, unique, creative design. From what I can tell no one in FIRST has done anything like this. You are "blazing a trail" here, with this design. Since this is new and no one has any experience with it, much development is needed. In order to make something like this work, you are going to need to get much imput, make various prototypes, and then expect to re-do things.

At this point, you have drawn a good concept. It does need some improvement, mainly in the area of wheel stability.

I am mostly worried about the wheel being able to withstand a side load. Currently, if a side load was put on the wheel at the location of the tread, the ring gear would slip off of the 4 planets. Gears would jam, metal would break, and general chaos would follow (well, not really).

I suggest this: Make something that will enable the wheel to be robust without involving the ring gear. Imagine removing the ring gear and having the wheel spin on the central shaft, around a bearing. If the wheel had a 1" wide (or bigger) hub with two sealed ball bearings on either side, then it would start to withstand the side load a wheel will see in a FIRST application.

Actually, you don't even need a custom wheel to do this. You could mount your ring gear on the side of a regular wheel (skyway), much like teams do when they mount a sprocket to a wheel. The ring gear just needs to be spaced out to the near side (the same side as the motors) of the wheel.

Good job, Matt. You should be a "gearmonkey" instead of a "codemonkey".

Andy B.