Effectiveness of Casters

[ngreen]

Originally Posted by Cory

The only reason that I would ever stick a castor on a robot would be to help turn. I would use a cylinder to engage or retract it, but I would never let two of them be in constant contact with the ground. If you had been around in past years, you would see robots with two driven wheels and two castors like you said. Basically, they would spin around like crazy, with very little control.

Cory

Yeah, castors that extend and retract are great for a robot with four wheel and too much traction. We were tripping breakers when we turned until we put the casters on. Just a tip, get sturdy casters and if you use pneumatic cyclinders do everything you can to protect the rod. They don't like side loads and the machine shop guys get tired of bending them back. Also, only lift so that the turning wheels touch and the others barely touch.

[Aignam]

Team 103, the Cybersonics, used two casters in their 2003 robot. That machine gave more or less every robot a run for their money. I'm not too certain of the specifics, or how it worked, but you most certainly can build a competetive and successful robot using casters.