Quote:
Originally Posted by BigWhiteYeti
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Besides, the only way I can think to change normal force without changing mass is a large fan, which would be impractical and be more pain than its worth.
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Another way to increase the normal force: give yourself a nice hydraulic suspension and bounce your way along like an El Camino down the strip -- at the lowest part of the bounce you'll have increased the normal force and can apply more power to the wheels at that time (assuming you don't want your wheels to spin out). Of course, at the top-side of the bounce you've a smaller F_n and can apply less power.
If you don't like how that affects your shooting/tracking/&c., mount ballast (or your batteries, or your control system) on a piston inside your robot and wiggle that up and down to the same effect.
An idea that came over from another thread: an imbalanced two-wheel design. If CoG is forward of wheels so that the trailer (through the hitch) is effectively holding down the back of the robot, then you'll have a higher F_n than solely due to robot weight.