Quote:
Originally Posted by apalrd
Look at robots from 2004. They climbed steps very well.
Simbotics (1114): They had four wheel pods (two crab pods and two casters) each with a pneumatic piston. They would lift all of the pistons, then run into the platform. Sensors on each pod would lift it as it hit the platform.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
Tank tracks: Outback Manufacturing has a kit for those, but most teams make their own with varying degrees of success (the Triplets in 2006) and unsuccess (any robot that throws more than one or two in a season). They'll work for stairs, but I wouldn't recommend them for flat floors necessarily.
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Although we were relatively successful with both the complex wheel pods of Simbot Simon in 2004 and the tank treads of Simbot Beckham in 2006, neither solution was chosen for pure climbing ability.
In 2004, the reason we went with with the independent lifting wheel pods was because we felt it was the best way to climb a 6" step, while using a swerve drive. If we weren't already committed to swerve drive, there's no way we would have gone down this road. This was just way too complex of a solution for a problem that could be handled in a much more conventional way.
In 2006, our use of tank treads had very little to do with climbing the ramps that were on the field. We went with the treads because we felt we could get more traction by taking advantage of the longer contact patch between the tread and the carpet. Granted, this does seem a bit odd considering the equation for traction has no surface area component. When you're dealing with two surfaces that interlock in the way carpet and roughtop tread do, the traditional model for evaluating traction doesn't exactly apply. Regardless, we chose treads because we wanted that robot to be immovable, the benefit of climbing the ramp was an added bonus. Again, the complexity, maintenance and cost could not have been justified just for climbing when a much simpler solution could have sufficed.
So, I don't have any groundbreaking suggestions for innovative stair climbing devices. However, I can say this: If you are going to go with a complex design like the ones discussed above, you better make sure the extreme design costs are justified by the game benefits. Typically the best way to justify these costs for a function is to make sure you get multiple points of utility out of them.
(And if you didn't bother reading all of that, here's the synopsis: Keep it simple!)