Drive Train Size for Ramp

[Gratz]

I am working on constructing a ramp for our team and was wondering how far apart many teams have spaced the wheels on their drive trains so we know what we need to accomodate. Thanks.

[Jonathan Norris]

My recommendation is to design a ramp with no greater angle than what the ramp was last year. I believe it was 30 degrees. That will probably be a safe bet.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Erm... to answer the question posed, I will proceed to consult my Magic 8-Ball.

22" to 28" wide: Most likely
29" to 38" wide: Outlook not so good
39" to 72" wide: Very doubtful
Greater than 72" wide: Better not tell you now

Okay. Aside from the smart alec remark for the last one, the 8-Ball seems pretty reliable. To translate into more useful figures, though, you're likely to see about 75% of teams in the first category, 23% of teams in the second, and 2% of teams in the third. The 4th category is, of course, illegal. So. The Magic 8-Ball has spoken.

[Cody Carey]

I don't think that any team will have a wheel-base greater than 36" or so...

[MrForbes]

Are you asking this question:

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=52413


or are you asking about wheelbase? ie front to back wheel spacing

[kibbs425]

My opinion... if you can afford it don't leave it up the other team to have a configuration to match your robot, design your robot to match any configuration, i.e. someone very well could have a kiwi or something similar and thats not going to work with a set wheel path to get up.

That said. Physically, probably not larger than 38 in. wide and you could probably count on the middle 12-15 in. not being used too much but the more you can give them for a trak the less you ahve to rely on the other drive to precisely drive it up. Probably going to be some mad dashes for the ramp.

Also if you cam make it shallower than 30 deg. that would be better but I know we are personally planning on at 30 deg max ramp. Not wat we want to go up but the robot can do it if we have to.

[MrForbes]

Wheelbase is generally the measurement between axles in the direction the wheels roll. Track width is generally how wide the wheels are spaced between sides, either center to center or overall width across both wheels.

I doubt we'll see any robots with a wheelbase longer than 34", but we could see some with track widths near 38"

[Cody Carey]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

The wider starting dimension is 38", so it's very possible many teams will be right at 37-38" (exposed wheels).

True, and I took that into account when saying that I don't believe any will.
Since, according to the earlier poll on the subject, only 16% of robots will be running a "wide" base, I don't believe we'll see very many, if any, cantilevered wide drives. You can just call it a hunch.

'lil Lavery was right in that you should design for a 38 incher anyway... just in case.

We'll just have to wait and see if my hunch is correct.

[Gratz]

I actually meant track width--thank you for correcting me and also redirecting me to that other poll.