Traversing Field Obstacles

[slibert]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkWfSADUAtA

That's great for powering over the bump, inertia for sure.

Thinking back to 2010's bumps, I've been pondering a software-activated mechanism that features a rear-mounted pneumatic mechanism "stinger pair" (two pistons, on each side of the rear bumper); it would be activated when the pitch (rotation about the Y axis) angle exceeds X% (an angle that would imply the front wheels were not making contact w/the ground, perhaps confirmed by motor current that is less than the rotational velocity/mass would imply) that would lift the back end and force contact with the front wheels. It'd likely be slower than the beachbot in the video, but it might be kinda cool....

[EricH]

Then there was the mixed pneumatic/normal wheel setup 330 used back in '04 to climb a 6" step. 12" pneumatic Skyway wheels, 6" normal ones. The normal wheels were in front, with a sloped frame to get them up to where they could get a grip. The 12" wheels drove the robot while the 6" ones got to a grip, then the 12" did their climb and up the robot went. It wasn't very fast--but it didn't need to be; that climb was autonomous and if all went well, the robot would spend all but auto and the 15 seconds or so after that hanging around in scoring position.