Calculating Wheel Size

[Greg Needel]

Other things to think about with wheels


With wider wheels you have a larger surface area touching the ground thus more friction force. They also take up more space on your robot

what I normally do is choose the wheels last this is because when you choose your gearing for optimal performance (either toque or speed, even in a 2 speed gearbox) then choose the wheels to determine your final max speed. See most people don’t think about the fact that if you put larger wheels on your bot, you will go faster without any gear change....

Now the catch with this line of thinking is that the wheel dilatometer also deals with the transfer of power a larger wheel takes more torque to get going as it also pulls more amps.

There is a lot to think about when choosing wheels and I for the most part make it my last decision when designing a driver train so I can optimize more.


Note: in the 2002 season we brought different size wheels to competition so we had options