Pneumatic Wheels!

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by Massako

We are planning to use a 6 cim drive train and we only calculated the speed to be around 18 feet per second and since were using a 6 cim drive train we chose to have as little compromises as possible between speed and strength and we plan to use bag and mini cims for in taking and everything else. if i am completely wrong please let me know as this can all change but this was the design my team decided on so i can bring them up on it. i will also talk to our lead metor and get his opinion on it as his first thoughts when we told him the gear reduction and what we were planning on doing was quite reasonable.

Thanks

A 6-CIM drive geared for 18fps (theoretical or actual) is not going to be able to push without running into main breaker trouble, unless your wheels have a very low COF. Something to keep in mind.

It's tempting to think of a 6-CIM drive as a way to gear your drive to move fast and be able to push, but it's not really so simple - in reality, you can easily just end up moving your problems from the 60A breakers to the main breaker.

There can be a "sweet spot" for single-speed 6-CIM drives where you'll be able to push constantly without blowing the main breaker and still move pretty fast (~14 fps with a 110lb robot and AndyMark HiGrip wheels has worked for me in the past), but it depends critically on robot weight, wheel COF, wire lengths, and god knows what else. It doesn't take much to make it go wrong (e.g. compressor turning on at the wrong time), so trying that is "living dangerously" and you should be careful about it. Remember: A blown main breaker is usually a lost match.

So, my advice is this: if you really want to push and move fast, get a two-speed gearbox. 6 CIM drives are great if you want some extra acceleration, but using 6 CIMs alone will not solve that problem for you.