Prototype transmission for potential use this year

[sanelss]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

I don't follow this logic.

Well just think about it. Any wheel drive where you can move the motor by turning the wheel you will have drifting wheel speeds depending on what else is going on. for example another robot is trying to push you around or you want to slow down but the inertia carries your robot further. With this setup where the wheel can't move the motor. If we tell the motor to go at 100rpm, then it doesn't matter what else is going on that motor is going to draw up to 100A or apply extreme braking to make that motor turn at 100 rpm, not any slower and not any faster. That means if u want the robot to stop, it's going to come to a complete dead stop instantaneously. Also if we meet some resistance(another robot) then the PID loop will keep increasing force to the absolute limits to try to make that motor turn at the set speed. Also if another robot tries to push us around, even if we don't have enough power to overpower them, simply not trying to do anything will provide tons of force and keep them from pushing us around, well as much resistance as the friction of the omni wheels provide. With this design we don't need the force to over power other robots, we just need enough traction and that will prevent anyone from pushing us around.