6 Wheel Tank Drive or Just Stait up Tank Tread?

[come-at-me-bro]

The tank tread idea sounds interesting enough. When my team and I were brainstorming my robot idea involved a Tank tread.

[theprgramerdude]

Compromise. Do a half-track with turning front wheels.

[jcarm]

ok thanks for the responses, i did look around and saw some different designs. But if i could get like a list of pros and cons on the two based on experience and reaserch, i think we may be going with a wider robot this year so any types of drive train that would be good for that would be helpful.
Thanks again

[Djur]

Tank Treads
Pros:
-Constant platform of support
-Can go halfway off bridge, assuming central or rear center of gravity
-Hard for opponents to push around
-Good traction
Cons:
-Very expensive
-Complex
-Narrow range of uses
-Torque issues

6wd
Pros:
-Good support platform
-Can go halfway off bridge, assuming central or rear center of gravity
-Fast turning
Cons:
-Typically on 4 out of 6 wheels
-Complicated


There are just my team's observations of other teams in the regionals (Boston) over the past few years. We've always stuck with 4wd Mecanum, so no first-hand experience.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Djur

Cons:
-Typically on 4 out of 6 wheels
-Complicated

6WDs are on 4 out of 6 wheels, but the drop is so negligible that it never seems to matter with sticky traction wheels.

If 6WD is mechanically complicated, you've got a problem.

[Djur]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

If 6WD is mechanically complicated, you've got a problem.

It's not so much intrinsically complicated as it is more complicated than a typical 4wd setup and might have more potential points of failure (it depends on how power is transmitted from the gearboxes to each wheel).

[mayde]

[font="Book Antiqua"]This is almost purely opinion, but I hate the idea of tank treads: last year my team had a painful experience trying to use tank treads for our drive train- it was horribly slow on the carpet and we didn't do enough research before deciding on the treads. It drained our batteries like mad and affected our gameplay. This year we'll most likely be using a 6 wheel tank drive with an offset center wheel. It all depends on which design we decide on in the end. I did notice, however, that the KOP wheels this year are a lot sturdier than past years with more grip. So they may wind up being sufficient for something like scaling the mid-field barrier between the bridges.

[SaintPikachu7]

Hey, so i'm on a rookie team working on the drive train with a 6-wheel tank drive (drop center) for our robot. drive train team isn't exactly sure of an efficient way to distribute the motors power to all 6 of our wheels. any ideas? we were thinking of perhaps keeping both the CIMple boxes in the back and extending the chain to run down the entire chassis, or we were planning to buy additional sprockets to reach down the wheels at the opposite ends of the motors. Any suggestions?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by SaintPikachu7

Hey, so i'm on a rookie team working on the drive train with a 6-wheel tank drive (drop center) for our robot. drive train team isn't exactly sure of an efficient way to distribute the motors power to all 6 of our wheels. any ideas? we were thinking of perhaps keeping both the CIMple boxes in the back and extending the chain to run down the entire chassis, or we were planning to buy additional sprockets to reach down the wheels at the opposite ends of the motors. Any suggestions?

Get an extra sprocket on the middle wheel and a sprocket on the front wheel that lines up with it. Run chain. Done.

[TechLizzy16]

My team thought about the tank drive idea but I know for sure we're going to use the 8"in mecanum wheels. ( I know I probably spelled that wrong.) I think the tank idea is great because I think it would help to get over the bridge or railing.