[Lil' Lavery]

Contact area has no significant impact on static friction in the FIRST world. As mentioned earlier, Normal Force can be defined as Pressure multiplied by Area, but in this scenario Pressure is equal to Normal Force/Area. So your pressure will decrease at the same rate your area increases, resulting in your Normal Force remaining the same. As such, your traction will remain the same. Granted you want to have large enough wheel that the tread won't fail (nor the carpet).


As for the debate on PID traction systems, couldn't it be accomplished by comparing the data from the encoders in the drive to an accelerometer? If the acceleration of the wheels is greater than the acceleration of the robot, wouldn't it determine that they are spinning out?
I speak purely out of speculation, and I don't have any real experience developing PID systems, but it seems like that solution could be possible to me.