pic: Full robot, half way through the season - back view

[Ty Tremblay]

Sounds like you know what you're doing. Just for clarity, what I meant by traction wheels was not-omni wheels. You could just use the same wheels as your center wheels.

In my opinion, unless all 6 wheels are traction (aka not omni) wheels, you don't need to drop the center. The purpose of dropping the center wheel is to shorten your wheel base. This way so you don't have to counteract the moments from the traction wheels on BOTH ends of the robot that are preventing your robot from turning. If you have omni wheels on the front, back, or both ends of the robot, that moment is no longer there.

I apologize if I'm overstepping any boundaries, simply trying to pass on my knowledge. I'm sure the team will be successful with whatever it decides. Looks great guys.

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by Ty Tremblay

In my opinion, unless all 6 wheels are traction (aka not omni) wheels, you don't need to drop the center. The purpose of dropping the center wheel is to shorten your wheel base. This way so you don't have to counteract the moments from the traction wheels on BOTH ends of the robot that are preventing your robot from turning. If you have omni wheels on the front, back, or both ends of the robot, that moment is no longer there.

I agree that all traction wheels is better than omnis on the end, but if you stick with omnis you should still drop the center. An omni wheel theoretically has the least friction when going completely sideways. When you turn, you sweep out an arc, you don't strafe sideways, so you still get drag from both sides of the robot. If you drop the center wheel, you essentially cut the wheelbase in half and reduce the drag. (Omnis wheels have a lot less drag then a traction wheel, but it is still helpful to drop the center). Either way it's not a big difference with omnis whether you drop or not, but I think it's a little better with the drop. I'd go with all traction wheels though...

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Ty Tremblay

I apologize if I'm overstepping any boundaries, simply trying to pass on my knowledge. I'm sure the team will be successful with whatever it decides. Looks great guys.

Not at all - we always appreciate constructive feedback like this!

Even with Omni's, we've found that dropping the center is still a good idea. Getting 6 wheels to all hit the ground evenly is fairly difficult... and you definitely want the KoP wheels in this setup to have firm contact - otherwise, you'd end up sliding sideways at the slightest breeze from an open door. Ok, that may be a little exaggeration Regardless, you need some traction side to side, and the easiest way to do that with this design is drop center.