[dtengineering]

Nice! We're building a "plywood box" robot too. We're using a CNC router for our detail work... looks like you've got access to a laser cutter? Is it big enough to get a whole side of the robot in? Our CNC can only fit about half of one side panel so we have to take care repositioning and indexing everything... a bit of a pain.

As for the pushing force, although it looks like it is doing a great job of pushing, a measured value of 80 lbs is quite a bit lower than the thoeretical maximum pushing force for a robot. I know your team has been around for a while, so forgive me if you've already considered the following.

If you have wheels with roughtop tread, the specified coefficient of friction with carpet is 1.3. That means that a 150lb robot (including bumpers, battery, etc.) with proper gearing and all the weight on high friction drive wheels should be able to generate over 180 lbs of 'push'. Even a standard AndyMark type wheel should give you a coefficient of friction close to 1.0 and up to 150 pounds of pushing force.

Are you using four CIMs in your drive system? What gear ratio (including any sprocket reductions) are you using? If your motors are near stalling at 80 pounds of pushing force and you want to get even more, it may be possible.

Jason