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Unread 31-12-2010, 22:50
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Jared Russell Jared Russell is offline
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FRC #0254 (The Cheesy Poofs), FRC #0341 (Miss Daisy)
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Re: Hypothetical Situation - Stairs

Quote:
Originally Posted by sanddrag View Post
I want to know what extends and retracts these wheels. Anyone have some insight on how this works? It almost looks like there's a rope/string of some sort inside.
I too spent a lot of time looking at the video to try and figure it out. I was hoping I could find a conference or journal paper with more details (since these are university researchers), but I haven't found one yet.

So I can only guess at what approach they took. I could imagine a coaxial shaft inside the drive shaft that moves inward and outward linearly to extend and retract the "whegs" - this would seem to me to be the most FRC-friendly design. There are also possibilities that may involve electrical or pneumatic rotary connectors (slip rings).

A lot of approaches used to achieve variable valve timing in internal combustion engines would seem to be appropriate here.