pic: High Traction Drivetrain Concept

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by Osseus_Dominum

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In my experience, these sort of drivetrains are susceptible to massive friction loss in a pushing match due to the effects of front-end lifting. For a visible (though somewhat extreme) example of this effect, check out videos from the 2010 game, where bumpers were mounted high.

To reference Lil' Lavery's comments above, in a drive system like this, the weight is distributed evenly between the wheels, however, when you get into a pushing match with another robot (assuming bumpers are the same height), both robots have a tendency to push each other upwards when in any kind of pushing match. On an 8wd robot where the center wheels are lower than the outer ones, the robot simply tilts back onto the rear wheels and maintains traction, but for a no-drop drive system, this effect will result in all of the robot weight being shifted on to you rear wheels, which in this case, have the lowest friction. All other things being equal, this design will likely not stand up in a pushing match with the majority of drop-center 8+ wheel robots, IMO.

[carpedav000]

Originally Posted by cbale2000

On an 8wd robot where the center wheels are lower than the outer ones, the robot simply tilts back onto the rear wheels and maintains traction, but for a no-drop drive system, this effect will result in all of the robot weight being shifted on to you rear wheels, which in this case, have the lowest friction. All other things being equal, this design will likely not stand up in a pushing match with the majority of drop-center 8+ wheel robots, IMO.

It seems like this issue could be easily remedied by mounting your drive motors/gearboxes (and battery if you have room) to the front of the robot to make it less resistant to shifting onto the back wheels. You could also build a suspension system into the wheels so that when the frame tilts, all the wheels stay on the ground (some might say that this would be too heavy, but you can make suspension systems fairly light ).

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by carpedav000

It seems like this issue could be easily remedied by mounting your drive motors/gearboxes (and battery if you have room) to the front of the robot to make it less resistant to shifting onto the back wheels. You could also build a suspension system into the wheels so that when the frame tilts, all the wheels stay on the ground (some might say that this would be too heavy, but you can make suspension systems fairly light ).

The weight solution is a good one for pushing matches, but it affects turning in most drives and only works in one direction (often I've found you need to be able to push from either side).
The suspension is also a good solution but far more complex to build.

[carpedav000]

Originally Posted by cbale2000

The weight solution is a good one for pushing matches, but it affects turning in most drives and only works in one direction (often I've found you need to be able to push from either side).
The suspension is also a good solution but far more complex to build.

I'm working on fixing the complexity part