3 wheel vs 4 wheel vs 6 wheel

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by locohammerhead

I NEED MAJOR HELP ASAP! My team has their minds set on a three wheel desighn and i keep telling them that its not stable and they wont listen and i need as much info about why those are not stable and why a 6 wheel or 4 wheel drive is the way to go. If you could contaCT ME ASAP! That would be great! my email is locohammerhead@hotmail.com just enter that for msn instant messenger aol is locohammerhead and yahoo is locohammerhead i will only be on the messengers for one more hour so if you could contact me that would be great! And if im not on please! email me here it is again locohammerhead@hotmail.com.

thank you,
Brandon Cook team 1256

I'm not sure how much a bunch of random outsiders on some messageboard is going to sway the arguement in your favor. I think you guys need to test out the theories yourselves and find out what works and what doesn't.

[SpaceOsc]

id argue that a 360 arm will cause your weight to shift to the gaps in between your triangle of wheels and may tip u over, if u are going with 3 wheels it better be low to the ground cuz when u hit one of those pvc pipes from the base of the goal tetra u might fall over, if u got a arm that spins 360 degrees (Turret Arm) then you can argue u dont neeed as much agility in your drive base, u just need to go backwards forwards and the ability to turn and most importantly not to fall over!!!!!!

of course there is some details that need clarifying, such as:

wuts the third wheel for? does it serve like a crab drive module? is it a castor? is it omni? is it even powered? and wut kind of config is it in? is the third wheel the leading wheel?


with arms that complex u really neeed a strudy box under your turret, also with a 6 wheel drive and or a 4wd you can have a larger base frame as im assuming most 3 wheel drive frames are smaller by default. and u do need room for that arm

ive been in situations like this before witha soburn team and usually can laugh about it on your own later when things go wrong, but if your teams not giving in then at least see wut the issues are and come up with ways to fix them now, like making the robot low, like using skids, and the such


-Osc-

[663.keith]

I can see a 3 wheel design for this years competition to be very unstable. It seems that we will see a lot of robots getting tipped over this year while trasfering tetras, or by another robot pushing them. A robot will have a very high center of gravity when it is holding on to a tetra, I would sugest trying to get the most contact with the floor as possible

[The Cyborg]

Our robot last year had a three wheel drive system, and there were a few ups and downs from having it:
First of all, we were tippy, and we also had a hard time programming the third wheel, since none of us last year knew C that well.
But, on the other hand, the third wheel made driving the robot significantly easier, since we specially programmed (after we learned to use C a little better ) only one joystick to drive the robot, and to have the wheel turn while we go forward at the same time, putting less stress on the wheels than a common four wheel drive.
A three wheel drive is good, and it is bad, it depends on what you have on the robot (and the experience you have, dont forget about the experience).

[Steve P]

Good luck moving in a straight line with a 3 wheel design.