A drag chain is a good idea.
ErichKeane -
As several others have pointed out, connecting the battery's return to the chassis is a bad thing that is illegal for very good reasons. This has examined and agreed on by many EE and safety experts, including our friends at UL.
I've gathered a few quips from this thread:
AdamHeard - and don't forget that a grounded frame allows a single wire failure to short the battery (a single positively charged wire coming loose).
RyanCahoon - Not really, it's more a convenience incentive, that way only one power wire (positive) has to be run to devices, leading to less cable runs.
Al Skierkiewicz - The robot frame is insulated from the control and electrical system for one very important reason, we want you to be able to play.
And I'll add a slightly less elegant one:
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The battery short issue is easily solved by using fuses and circuit breakers.
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This is not true. In order to do this, all of the smaller paths need positive AND negative breakers. If a 5A return is sourced by a 40A source, the 5A return will fail. The converse is also true.
"One Breaker per Path" is only viable if your topology is a star. If the ground is already shorted, you are one mistake away from breaking that assumption.