What type of drive train did you make this year?

[James114]

I was wondering what types of drive trains were made this year?

[Katy]

I lack the picture at the moment but I will find one soon.

We took your basic 4 wheel tank drive and tilted the wheels inward. Because that was unclear: we set the wheels so that the top of the wheels was closer to the center of the robot than the bottom of the wheels. The axles, motors, chains, sprockets, everything was mounted at this new angle. It actually was pretty easy to make and did not weigh anything extra. Usually the side of one tank drive is enclosed in a long thin rectangular box. We just tiled this box and mounted them against the angles we cut on the crosspieces that went across the front and back of the robot. (about 20 degrees for us). Putting the wheels like this also makes the robot very low to the ground.

This made the robot very hard to move off course. To help us maneuver more easily we placed two casters on the front of the robot. These casters were mounted to hinges. The hinges were positioned at 90 degree angles to the bar that made up the front of the robot. The casters were on the rotating flap of the hinges (on the underside) and on top sits an extruded Al stick. These sticks are connected by a pneumatic which is suspended in the air between them. When the pneumatic fires (parallel to the front of the frame) it presses the extruded Al pieces down which presses the hinges which rotate at a 90 degree angle to the frame and press the casters down.

[JohnnyB]

We (team 217) used a 6 wheel drive base runing off 2 Chip motors and 1 fisher price (per side). Lots of speed and pushing power, without having to shift gears.

[Bcahn836]

We used a basic 2 wheel drive using the given transmissions in the rear and omni wheels in the front. It drives well and with 4 CIM motors has plenty of pushing power. The omni wheels allow for great turning and control it is a nice setup for our purposes.

[DarkJedi613]

Basic 4 wheel drive (modified kit drivetrain), one speed, pneumatic tires.

[CyberWolf_22]

We used 1 CIM per side running in to a DeWALT transmissions driving 3 wheels on each side.

[Anthony Kesich]

We built a 6 wheel drive train ruyn off of 2 CIMs per side through a custom one speed gearbox. We couldn't use the standard gearbox since we needed our CIMs to face eachother and have the output shaft go straight through. This shaft was then use to power a direct drive system. We used U-joints so our shafts could be at an angle so we could lower our center wheel by 1/32". The shaft then powered the wheels through custom-made miter gear-boxes.

It was a lot of work, but it has ended up being very effective. No chains to worry about throwing and noone has been able to push us. Even though we lost to them, in the final round, we pushed Adam-bots (245) all the way across the field with no problem.

I'll post pictures of our transmission later.

-Tony K

[Tom Bishop]

We used the kit transmission 4-wheel tank drive option with 48 tooth sprockets on 8.5 X 2 inch skyway beadlok wheels. Works really well!

[Andrew Y.]

omni BABY!!!

[Jeff Pahl]

1 CIM & DeWALT transmission per side, each driving one 12.5" pneumatic wheel. Ball casters on the 4 corners. Manuevers well, but we could have used some more traction. Also got one of the ball castors hooked over the pipe on the base of a goal, and couldn't get back off.

Next year we're going to make the DeWALT's shift... I'm don't think I saw anyone else using the DeWALT transmissions at the Peachtree Regional.

[Tim Arnold]

Front wheel drive, 2 powered wheels. On the back are dual tri-casters. Can't push anything, including a tetra. Only one speed.

Here are pictures of the drive train, wheels, and tri-casters.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Tank treads, with a lowered idler wheel so that we can turn on a dime.

All of this powered by 4 speed automatic transmisson, which uses 4 Chips.

[Ianworld]

6 wheels driven by 2 chips put through the kit transmission. Its two speed shift on the fly though. By moving the transmissions left or right, using a pneumatic, we tighten a belt on one side of the transmission or the other. Different pulley ratios give us two different speeds. Nice simple 2 speed shift on the fly.

[Alex Cormier]

for 1126 we had 6WD tank steering with a 4 speed transmission. it does great and it shifts automatically. it is simply amazing we also designed our own wheels. good luck every one!

[AJL930]

We used two drive wheels in the back powered by two chippy motors a piece and in the front we used two swivel casters.