Problems turning

[Bochek]

Well we shipped the robot with 2 main problems, we are 5 lbs over weight, and the robot doesn't turn.

im working on a sollution to the weight problem, but i have a question about the turning problem.

if you watch this video:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?doc...15467259458065

you can see that we have issues with turning, we have to take a run and then quickly reverse one side to get it to turn.

i was thinking as a simple and easy sollution would be to replace all 4 wheels with the omni wheels available from andymark. as well as premounting the wheels to aluminum sprockets from ifi robotics so that its a simple swap at the competition.

my questions are as follows:

will this help us turn?
what are the disadvantages?
how much weight can we expect to loose by swaping to the aluminum sprockets?

Thanks alot.

- Bochek

[Cody Carey]

Originally Posted by Bochek

Well we shipped the robot with 2 main problems, we are 5 lbs over weight, and the robot doesn't turn.

im working on a sollution to the weight problem, but i have a question about the turning problem.

if you watch this video:
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?doc...15467259458065

you can see that we have issues with turning, we have to take a run and then quickly reverse one side to get it to turn.

i was thinking as a simple and easy sollution would be to replace all 4 wheels with the omni wheels available from andymark. as well as premounting the wheels to aluminum sprockets from ifi robotics so that its a simple swap at the competition.

my questions are as follows:

will this help us turn?
what are the disadvantages?
how much weight can we expect to loose by swaping to the aluminum sprockets?

Thanks alot.

- Bochek

Yes, it will help you turn, but you will get pushed sideways. A lot. A more cost-effective/easy solution would be to just switch out two wheels for omnis. The only thig is that you would pivot around the two wheels that still have sideways traction, but if you replace your back wheels, it will allow you to pivot around the front of your robot... which could be a huge advantage while positioning around a target such as a tube.You can reasonably expect to lose between a pound and two pounds by switching out the sprockets.


-Cody C

EDIT: Your drivers have learned to cope with the decreased ability to turn very well. Good job.

[Jizvonius]

Omni wheels will make turning much easier. The major disadvantage to that system is that while you can turn yourself with less effort, so can everyone else.

I would suggest only changing out either the two front or back wheels with omnis. This way you can still turn easily, but you can resist a little pushing from another robot. Note that your turning center will shift towards the non-omni wheels in this case.

The sprocket weight thing can be calculated based upon the size of your sprocket and the densities of the metals. If your current sprockets have large hubs, the weight savings could be significant

Edit: so a lot of this repeats Cody's post, but the sprocket calculations still stand.

[Ben Piecuch]

Bochek,

You didn't tell us what your drivetrain consists of, and your video doesn't give us much insight into it either. However, based on a previous picture you posted of your kitbot, I'm going to assume that you're using the standard kitbot setup with 4 kit wheels, a single motor Banebot 56mm tranny, and 2wd.

Your problem comes with the fact that your robot requires more power to turn than the single motor setup provides. The kit wheels provide a lot of traction in both the lateral (front/back) and transverse (side) directions. You need to either:
a) increase the supplied turning force.
b) reduce the required turning force.

You can solve (a) by adding more power with more motors, or by reducing the gear ratio to reduce your speed and increase your torque. With your existing weight problem, adding more motors doesn't help your cause.

You can solve (b) by reducing the transverse friction in your wheels. Most teams accomplish this by adding one set of "omniwheels" to their drivetrain. For 2wd setups, you would add the omniwheels to the non-driven wheels. Andy-Mark makes a nice omni-wheel, but they are not the only ones on the market. There are cheaping and lighter alternatives, such as ones found at McMaster.com or Omniwheel.com You can also reduce your required turning force by reducing your wheelbase, or powering all 4 wheels.

There are several whitepapers, as well as numerous threads on this site that explain this problem in more detail. Some simple changes should be able to be made at your competition to have you up and running in no time. Best of luck,

BEN

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Jizvonius

I would suggest only changing out either the two front or back wheels with omnis. This way you can still turn easily, but you can resist a little pushing from another robot. Note that your turning center will shift towards the non-omni wheels in this case.

The omni-wheel placement depends on where they want the center of rotation to be. If they wish to pivot around the front, place the omnis in the back. Vice versa for pivoting around the back. If they wish to pivot around the center (as well as reduce opposing robots ability to pivot them compared to other omni placements), the best solution would to be place the omni wheels on opposite corners of the drive.

[silicon_ghoti]

From what I've seen on other forums it would seem that all omni-wheels causes you to be pushed, I would suggest doing what li'l Lavery said and if you have a 4 wheel base, put on 2 omni-wheels in opposite corners of the robot, this allows for easier turning and you're still hard to push. On the aluminum bearings I am no help (sorry I'm an EE guy.)

(The wheel design looks like this the parenthesis are omnis and the straits are regular wheels.)


()____________________||
()____________________||
()____________________|| <----these are regulars
()____________________||
()____________________||




||____________________()
||____________________()
||____________________() <---these are omnis
||____________________()
||____________________()

[Cody Carey]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

The omni-wheel placement depends on where they want the center of rotation to be. If they wish to pivot around the front, place the omnis in the back. Vice versa for pivoting around the back. If they wish to pivot around the center (as well as reduce opposing robots ability to pivot them compared to other omni placements), the best solution would to be place the omni wheels on opposite corners of the drive.

Since surface area has no bearing on friction, I would assume that this would be a bad Idea. By putting the two "sticky" wheels beside each other, you are reducing the amount that the wheel has to be pulled sideways when turning, and increasing the amount that it rolls along the turn. This decreases over all turning friction.

If you were to place them on opposite corners, it would do nothing to the amount that the sticky wheels have to be pulled sideways to follow the circle of your turning radius, and since One wheel has the same amount of friction as two, I wouldn't expect this to solve your problem at all.

[Goldeye]

One of the best solutions to turning difficulties is very often overlooked.
Lower you gear ratio, significantly
It gives your robot the force to turn against friction, and saves energy while doing it.
Also, you will probably find it makes the robot much more controllable anyway.
This is just a suggestion, and seeing as it doesn't help you with weight either, might not be the best solution.

[Bochek]

Originally Posted by Ben Piecuch

Bochek,

You didn't tell us what your drivetrain consists of, and your video doesn't give us much insight into it either. However, based on a previous picture you posted of your kitbot, I'm going to assume that you're using the standard kitbot setup with 4 kit wheels, a single motor Banebot 56mm tranny, and 2wd.

sorry, the drivetrain is the banebots 56mm gearbox with a CIM and 4wd.

basically the standard kitbot chassis but with added sprokets and chain to make it 4wd.

so replacing the rear wheels with omni's could prove a good solution then?
and i would still keep it 4wd correct?

- Bochek

[Jimmy Nichols]

Yes, that would keep it four wheel drive. My question is, how are you operating your bot. If you are running a single motor and gearbox, think about adding another and running it tank style, this makes turning much easier without purchasing the omni's. The only drawback would be your wheelbase, the larger the wheelbase on your 4WD system, then the harder it is to turn if with a tank drive system.

[Ben Piecuch]

Thanks for clarifying the drive train.

With that information, omniwheels are probably your best choice in this situation, due to weight and time contrainsts. If the weight of your robot is equally balanced between the front and the back (a 50/50 weight distribution) then it doesn't matter which side you put the omniwheels on. Basically, it would come down to the driver's preference as to which end of the robot gets rotated. I would suggest looking at some video of FRC176 this season. They are using omniwheels on the back of their robot, and you can see how it significantly changes the style of driving.

If the robot is significantly heavier on one side or the other, it is advantageous to put the omniwheels on the lighter side of the robot. With your traction wheels on the heavy side, you will transmit more power to the ground, and the robot will turn even easier.

Having the 4wd setup has already provided a huge step up in performance, as you probably realized during testing with the lighter kitbot setup. Mounting a chain and sprockets to some of the cheaper, generic omniwheels is a little more complicated than just a drop in solution. I feel that the Andy-Mark 6" omniwheel is your best solution, as those wheels are a direct replacement for the existing 6" wheels.

One other solution, which may not be widely accepted here, is to find an old 6" skyway wheelchair wheel. These are the old kitbot wheels which teams used in previous years. They are not as grippy as the new kit wheels, and could provide you the right balance between side slip and lateral grip. With the proper wheel hub, these are also a direct drop-in solution.

Best of luck.

BEN

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Bochek

sorry, the drivetrain is the banebots 56mm gearbox with a CIM and 4wd.

basically the standard kitbot chassis but with added sprokets and chain to make it 4wd.

so replacing the rear wheels with omni's could prove a good solution then?
and i would still keep it 4wd correct?

- Bochek

This will work well (we've used it in the past).

A inexpensive alternative is putting zipties on the rear set of wheels. Putting about 10-20 zipties on each wheel (equally spaced) will reduce the traction of those wheels. The more zipties, the less traction. As with Omniwheels, as your traction goes down it becomes easier to push you around.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Cody Carey

Since surface area has no bearing on friction, I would assume that this would be a bad Idea. By putting the two "sticky" wheels beside each other, you are reducing the amount that the wheel has to be pulled sideways when turning, and increasing the amount that it rolls along the turn. This decreases over all turning friction.

If you were to place them on opposite corners, it would do nothing to the amount that the sticky wheels have to be pulled sideways to follow the circle of your turning radius, and since One wheel has the same amount of friction as two, I wouldn't expect this to solve your problem at all.

From experience with vex bots, it definitely improves turning. Also look at 494/70 last year.
Omni placement all depends on how you want your robot to drive and how you want your robot to react to defense.

[Dominicano0519]

Originally Posted by Bochek

sorry, the drivetrain is the banebots 56mm gearbox with a CIM and 4wd.

basically the standard kitbot chassis but with added sprokets and chain to make it 4wd.

so replacing the rear wheels with omni's could prove a good solution then?
and i would still keep it 4wd correct?

- Bochek

where you turning at full speed?
Try telling your programers to make the wheels spin in opposite directions when turning.

also you might want to consider sliding the wheels closer together to get smoother turning it really helped us out since we had a 4wd robot last year that jumped around like a bull

this year just with replacing tires and moving the wheels closer it turns like an RC car

[Dominicano0519]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

This will work well (we've used it in the past).

A inexpensive alternative is putting zipties on the rear set of wheels. Putting about 10-20 zipties on each wheel (equally spaced) will reduce the traction of those wheels. The more zipties, the less traction. As with Omniwheels, as your traction goes down it becomes easier to push you around.

uhh we had a bad experience with zip ties in the Philly regional

In New Jersey they said it was perfectly legal; while in philly we ended up shaving all of the treads from our tires and waxing them every match becuase they said nothing mechanical could be added to the tires.