Quote:
Originally Posted by wilsonmw04
Because of various design issues and the "80 inch rule," we are thinking about turning our frame side ways and putting the drive wheels on the short axis. We are looking at a frame 36" wide by 26" long. With a far shorter wheelbase, are there going to be problems with turning something this wide. is there a disadvantage to powering all four wheels?
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If anything, turning will become much easier due to the shorter wheelbase. Assuming your wheels are standard "grippy" wheels and you power all of them, it's easier to turn a wider robot with this configuration than it is a longer bot.
However, you must consider other drawbacks to using a wider design - first and foremost, how stable will you be if you have an arm that reaches high in the air? Remember, you should also consider external bumper zone forces from other robots in your design. If "tippiness" is a problem, you may choose to incorporate a simple extendable wheelie bar in the front and/or back of your robot (can be as simple as a pneumatic cylinder pointing at the ground with a PVC endcap attached to the end of it - 48 did this in 2003 to stabilize our short wheelbase robot and minimize the risk of tipping over when driving up the ramp).
You must also consider that you will be a "wide load" when driving around the track - you will take up more track width and are therefore more likely to block traffic - you are also more likely to be blocked by other traffic, as you aren't as easily able to squeeze through tight spaces.