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Re: Drive systems
I would really recommend against tank treads for 3 reasons:
1) They are more complicated than they appear. you will need the tread (fairly expensive) special wheels, and at least 8 wheels to do them well, and many teams use more
2)There is no large advantage over wheels. It is true that for a defensive robot they are good because they have immense traction, but they are also more inefficient that wheels. It is better overall to invest in a strong offensive robot, because the same charactersitics which make a robot good at offense also allow it to play at least some aspects of defense. For example, our robot this year has high traction mcmaster tread on 8 wheels and switching gearboxes, meaning that if for whatever reason we need to play defense, we will be able to simply push other robots around in low gear; maybe not as effectively as a tank treaded robot, but still enough to be useful in either role
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Removing too much of the challenge removes too much of the accomplishment when you solve the problem. Removing too much of the challenge removes too much of the innovation in the solutions... removing too much of the challenge removes too much of the fun.
- dlavery [more] 
16-01-2012, 22:27
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