Caster Wheels

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Why would skid pads work better than ball casters? They have much more friction. Do you have experience with either you're basing this on?

Skid pads, done right, can be quite fluid on an FRC field. 330 did small plastic skid pads back in 1998, on the four corners of a 2WD. Yes, my memory does reach that far back! (I just don't remember if they had drive problems--I remember the full-robot failure, and I think that was the year they were 20+ lbs over, with a not-well-designed arm.) 1266's rookie robot, from 2004, had 2WD with two rather good-sized skids of aluminum (least I don't think it was steel) with an HDPE (?) floor contact pad. They didn't have a whole lot of trouble maneuvering, IIRC. They climbed the step OK with the skids, until the HDPE decided it wanted away from the Al and tried pulling out.

Ball casters may have less friction, but if they do go haywire, look out, and the CIMs can beat that friction fairly well.