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.