pic: Drivetrain Concept

[MrForbes]

I've been discussing this with some of the students and Steve, here are a few more comments. The plan for the sides was to use a hardwood such as oak. I'm sure we'll get the "that's way too heavy!" comments...that's ok...last year our robot with it's way-too-heavy drive base was still 10 pounds lighter than it could have been, and it never wanted to fall over. Hardwood has the advantage of being dense, so it won't let the bearings open up their holes too much, and it should hold screws better than a lighter wood (although putting the screws in would be more of a challenge). We used .060" 3003 aluminum for the belly pan and corner braces last year, it worked fine, it's pretty easy to rivet to the fiberglass channel to make a strong structure.

One interesting point about this design is that it uses three quite different materials for the chassis structure, and each material is used in that place where it is most effective.