Brownout Prevention?

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by MrRoboSteve

One test I use is to put the robot, with battery and bumpers installed, on carpet. Put a sheet of paper underneath each of the corner tires, and pull it out. If the force needed to pull the sheet out varies dramatically, you need to balance the robot.

If all four corner wheels of a drop center robot carry significant weight, you don't really have a drop center. If you want the turning advantage of drop center, you either need more drop or to stiffen your wheel motion (e.g. inflate the wheels higher). Further, many 6-wheel drop-center robots are intentionally designed with the CoG offset from the center axle. This is most commonly done to improve stability when manipulating game pieces (pickup, launch or placement), but can also be used to help cross obstacles such as the step in 2012 or the defenses in 2016.