8WD drivetrain?

[Dan Petrovic]

Originally Posted by Adam Shapiro

One thing I would be concerned with in designing such a drive system would be the additional friction you'd get with the extra wheels. It would most likely make it considerably harder to turn such a system. It would certainly be a major consideration in how you'd design the new gearing system to power such a bot. Don't want to finish the drive train and find out that even light turns are blowing your breakers, and even your main breaker (like our 2002 tank)!

Yeah, that's one thing I'd think there would be a problem with 8WD. Maybe if the front and rear wheels rotated so when you wanted to turn, they would just rotate so there isn't as much rocking back and forth like we see on so many 6WD robots. Except that would be impossible, or impractical, considering the limits on CIMs.

Maybe front and rear wheels are omni-wheels?