Best wheels to not damage a gym floor

[Jeffy]

We have been able to use blue nitrile and not damage the gym floor. It should also be noted that any scuffs from meccanum wheels or the like come off in seconds with a fuzzy tennis ball on a stick.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by Jeffy

We have been able to use blue nitrile and not damage the gym floor. It should also be noted that any scuffs from meccanum wheels or the like come off in seconds with a fuzzy tennis ball on a stick.

Try convincing a paranoid basketball coach of that

We have mecanums on our rebound rumble bot, and while it would be great to demo at these games, it might be tricky to convince the powers that be that it's safe and harmless.

[Brandon Zalinsky]

Originally Posted by dcarr

Try convincing a paranoid basketball coach of that

We have mecanums on our rebound rumble bot, and while it would be great to demo at these games, it might be tricky to convince the powers that be that it's safe and harmless.

For us, if we use our mechanums slowly and don't try to drive aggressively, the floor is fine. The robots that have more damaged mechanums also tend to do more damage to the floor.

[Taylor]

I think the key thing to consider is the cleanliness of the wheel. Make sure they're free of debris that could catch and dig into the floor.
Mecanum wheels have a BUNCH of surface area that could pick up little pebbles.
2009 wheels would be the easiest to visually inspect.

Why not just cover your wheels in duct tape?

Just take it off when you're not demoing, put it back on when you are.

[Taylor]

[quote=SuperNerd256;1193399]Why not just cover your wheels in duct tape?QUOTE]

Because duct tape tends to leave a nasty, sticky residue. Sean's suggestion of gaffers tape is a good one.

[dcarr]

I wanted to revisit this thread to ask - who out there has done a successful demo at a basketball game (or other similar event in a gymnasium) with their Rebound Rumble robot? What worked, what didn't? Any advice to other teams wishing to do something like this? We plan to keep our 2012 bot up and running for the possibility of doing one in January.