Quote:
Originally Posted by kramarczyk
As far as rock from a dropped center wheel goes, with our 1/8 drop across a ~30" wheel base the max rock is ~0.5 degrees. We can see it on concrete, but not carpet... it basically is rockless. C'mon, drop that wheel I know you want too. Everybody's doing it.  |
I'm going to have to agree with you on this statement. Dropping the center wheel of a drivetrain is the perfect fix for adding maneuverability to a six wheel drive robot, and the rocking that results is so small that it will have no effect on the performance of the bot. (I can't even see it on carpet)
As far as calculations go for drivetrains, I don't think we are able to make even close estimates to the amount of pushing force you can get out of a certain drivetrain. It depends on more than just the tread material; the geometry that you have your wheels set up in has an enormous effect on how much pushing power you get. Take team 842's drivetrain for example. They have four wheel drive, but because they have traction wheels set up the way they do they can get much more pushing force than a typical 6 wheel drive bot (
240 lbs, actually). There are tradeoffs, though. Carl Hayden's bot can only push hard in one direction, and it can easily be spun by opponents.
After pondering this for a while, I've been thinking that an ideal set up may be what 703 has done with their drivetrain this year, with a large amount of wheels set up in a large arc. Does anyone know how much their robot can push?