Low Bar

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by Jared Russell

Moreover, a robot that has been designed to fit under the low bar as a rigid swept volume may find that things work a bit differently at 10+ feet per second...and especially with bouncy wheels...

We reconfigured the kit chassis to use pneumatic wheels and did lots of testing with it over the defenses with uneven terrain. Here it is crossing just an empty platform at roughly full speed with nothing in the way. We unintentionally flipped that drivetrain upside down just once, but it wasn't when going over the rock wall or moat... it was when we went full speed over an empty platform and tried to slow down at the end.

Crossing defenses is very dynamic, CAD doesn't really show whether a design will work or not. Adding pneumatic wheels just makes things even more unpredictable. We weren't at all happy with that 6wd pneumatic setup, we're doing something else.

[Monochron]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

Crossing defenses is very dynamic, CAD doesn't really show whether a design will work or not. Adding pneumatic wheels just makes things even more unpredictable. We weren't at all happy with that 6wd pneumatic setup, we're doing something else.

What about it were you unhappy with?

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

Originally Posted by Monochron

What about it were you unhappy with?

For reasons explained in the video. For one, you have a severe loss of control and precision going over the defenses when the drivetrain is doing nosedives across the defenses. It also wasn't that great at going over slowly. In short we weren't satisfied with going over defenses if we couldn't do it in a fast AND controlled manner so we opted not to go with a modified kitbot. Even if it meant sacrificing build time that could have went towards something else like the shooter. It seemed/still seems worth it since the drivetrain is literally half the game this year.