New chassis CAD

[Alan Anderson]

With omniwheels at all four of the corners, the robot will turn without significant effort.

You should recognize that as a potential problem in itself. Depending on other factors, it might be difficult to control, and it might be undesireably easy for other robots to spin it by pushing on a corner.

[Mr. Rogers]

Would thicker center wheels help at all, or should I consider 8wd with the center 2 pairs as close together as possible (I don't want too much wear on the wheels this year)

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Mr. Rogers

Would thicker center wheels help at all, or should I consider 8wd with the center 2 pairs as close together as possible (I don't want too much wear on the wheels this year)

You could also swap one end's omnis for a pair of traction wheels of some form. That'll give you--for turning purposes--a half-length, full width 4WD, instead of your current 2WD (again, for turning purposes).

[avanboekel]

You also may want to move the battery closer to the outside of the bot. You are going to want it there for easy access between matches. Just remember to redistribute the weight over you center wheels with the rest of you bot (manipulator).

[Mr. Rogers]

Sounds like CimBotics Kit bot on steroids. My head mentor suggested a 6 wheel drive system, I just don't like that it always is a sacrifice of turning capability, or loss of stability due to wheel drop that adds rocking. Anybody have any experience with the p80's? What kind of gear reduction? Last year we used stock toughbox minis that were 12.75:1 with 4'' plactions. I'm trying to direct drive 6'' plactions with the bane bot p80's, but they only come in 4:1, 12:1, 16:1 ratios, not too sure what we should go with.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by EricH

You could also swap one end's omnis for a pair of traction wheels of some form. That'll give you--for turning purposes--a half-length, full width 4WD, instead of your current 2WD (again, for turning purposes).

I've seen that work well... especially if you make the two traction wheels close together.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

I've seen that work well... especially if you make the two traction wheels close together.

It works especially well if you adjust your robot's balance to favour the paired traction wheels. The omnis would only be used if the balance is upset. (Obviously you'd have to decide if that's possible for a given game.)

And while we're waiting for the next game to be revealed, why not sketch out a wide-based version of this design? There have been numerous FIRST games in which the narrowness of the robot wasn't an issue, and wide 4WD bases made a lot of sense.