Quote:
|
Originally Posted by the_short1
being pure defense (not designed to score), is not a great way to "Aim high", as packing a lot of weight, and a solid tank drivetrain isn’t much in the end of engineering and innovation (IMHO), and it also leads to very brutal "battle bots" in some, but not necessarily all.
-kevin
|
As the driver for 1549 and having taken a large hand in design and fabrication of the drivetrain I disagree with the 1/2 track design being low on the innovation scale. The 1/2 track implementation offers a robust application of a purpose engineered track assembly with a extreme ability to resist lateral (off drive axis) force; a design flaw which befell many of the full track drivetrain configurations at GLR. Although not outwardly visible, thus understandably omitted, the placement of the gearboxes utilizing a robust tensioning method allowed for the collapse of a transmission casting and still proved reliable tensioning utilizing the secondary mechanism for the majority of the final day having yet to fail in competition.
drivetrain innovation is a challenging class to judge as many subtle features incorporated are difficult to notice thanks in part to the durability which they provide.
as a comment I would like to point out we had no problems pushing around any other drivetrain presented at GLR at least we were equally matched in the rare occasion. If you have video proof of 1549 being pushed around head to head I would love to study it.