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Unread 09-01-2008, 00:15
writchie writchie is offline
Engineering Mentor
AKA: Wally Ritchie
FRC #2152 (Team Daytona)
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Re: 2008 and drivetrains

Quote:
What I am looking forward to is the emergence of "car" steering. We are seriously considering setting up just like a sports car... rear wheel drive, front wheel steering. While it doesn't have a "zero" turn radius like tank drive, it should work great for high speed cornering and swerving around other robots heading down the straights.

But we've got a few other tests to run before we commit to that just yet.

Jason
We too are looking seriously at rear wheel drives, independent suspensions, Ackerman steering in the front (and perhaps also the rear), two drive trains and software differential. All this is of course before we apply KISS and also depends on where we settle with our base strategy.

I've seen lots of posts suggesting that perhaps the math hasn't yet been done by some of the teams. Centripetal force is square law and high traction is necessary for high speed cornering.

I AM glad to see a new challenge where just the same old 6WD skid steered pushbot of yesteryear may not necessarily be the optimal drive configuration. However, I am not looking forward to the mechanical carnage we are likely to see on the field from mv**2/2 from 10 sources.