Drivetrains: Pushing Power?

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Kims Robot

And as for the bathroom scale, they have come up with ways of "testing" but Im trying to get them to do the true engineering... DESIGN it first, then see if your calculations match what the real measured values are... if not, why??

Yes, I was a bit hasty to suggest that first, you definitely should do the engineering first, then test it!

[AdamHeard]

Like mentioned before, it's based on the stall torque provided by the motors and the maximum traction force, whichever is lower.

For the force the motors can provide, calculate the torque at the wheel, and divide it by the radius of the wheel (T = F x D.... so F = T/D.... D is distance).

For the maximum traction force, you must lookup/experimentally determine/calculate the Coefficient of friction of the wheels and multiply that by the weight of the robot. Hopefully this number is the smaller of the two.

Now, that's just theory; I'd expect it to be off by a little bit when measured 842 style.