paper: grassHopper Hybrid Drive System

[Abhishek R]

Originally Posted by philso

Your drawings show one lift plate and bearing block on each of the articulated axles but the photos show two. Did you find that the forces on the axle cause the two lift plates to "twist" relative to each other?

No, we didn't experience any noticeable torque on the plates. The system we used in the offseason held up through three full-size competitions (TRI, IRI, TRR, soon to be four with Remix) all with significant amounts of defense. We always had the ability to push others around when we wanted to and were able to break free from other teams attempting to pin us.

Originally Posted by IKE

Very neat chassis. Did you have any trouble with it being pitchy in H mode?

If by pitchy, you mean likelihood of falling over face first during sudden acceleration/braking - we came very close to tipping ourselves over, but it never actually happened (before someone brings it up, the one time we were tipped over was due to another robot intruding our perimeter and pushing us over from the side). I attribute this to our somewhat top heavy design (relative to other robots, our catapult's pivot point was much higher than others') and the short wheelbase of our 8-wheel square drivetrain. Nothing that wouldn't happen with a standard 8-wheel drive.

Thank you for the compliments!