6 Wheel Drive vs. 8 Wheel Drive

[GRT808]

You described what configuration you chose, and what challenges you hoped it would overcome. Can you explain what specifically about your chosen configuration you thought would lend itself to overcoming those challenges? Do you have anymore insight into your process which lead to this decision? Was there prototyping involved - CAD or otherwise?

Can you explain why you think 6WD has superior maneuverability?

We chose that configuration after some testing with vex (we didn't have a good test bot for 8wd configuration) models. We did do some testing with other prototypes such as a raised front idler wheel, but we really didn't want that. CAD was extensively used we developed 4 iterations and how they would interact with the field before we settled on what we thought was the simplest and easiest to implement with the resources we had. We wanted to go with what we knew would work, and the 8" 8WD plaction we were very confident would work.

This was our very first year working with 8WD, so we didn't have to much to work off of besides what peoples opinion were on CD and some of the robots offered to the public on FRC Designs (which really helped us a lot this year). We had worked with a .1875" 6WD drop for last years game and for our T-Shirt cannon (0.125" 6WD drop), and those are the easiest drive trains for our driver to control. The 8WD he said was a bit sluggish in turning (0.125" drop). That may also have been because of the wear on the center tread.

a well implemented 8WD should have superior maneuverability to a 6WD as the effective wheelbase is significantly shorter.

Yes I do know some teams implement very successful 8WD, such as the one you mentor, this was our first time and first experience with changing variables such as tread wear.

What characteristics of your drive do you think lended themselves to high traction and high pushing power (which are related)?

Nothing really concrete other than our observations.
1: It was very hard to push laterally.
2: It was quite easy to push other robots onto the bridge.
3: Pushing power due to the amount of traction we had & the ratio of our low gear.
4: We based it off of 359's Breakaway robot which had impressive pushing force on the field.