Gyroscopic Steering?

[dantheflipman]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I know 1388's gyro weighed about 11 or 12 pounds and was maybe 12 or 14 inches in diameter. It spun at about 2000 rpm. They demonstrated it for me while sitting on their cart, and it was able to jerk the cart left and right considerably. I'd definitely say it had some considerable effect.

yeah those numbers are just about right

our gyro actually did have a considerable effect on driving the robot, when being chased by another bot we were able to literally flip a 180 degree turn and then keep driving backwards with ease, it really did help a ton with defensive driving. demonstrating that thing in the pits was fun, it's so loud that every time you turn it on it get's quite a bit of attention


too bad the motor that tilts it broke right before the last match in the finals at San Diego, with it our alliance would have had a greater chance at winning.. (that was the closest our team has gotten to winning in our 6 years ^_^ so i'm still stoked at how well we did.)

[purduephotog]

Originally Posted by dantheflipman

yeah those numbers are just about right

our gyro actually did have a considerable effect on driving the robot, when being chased by another bot we were able to literally flip a 180 degree turn and then keep driving backwards with ease, it really did help a ton with defensive driving. demonstrating that thing in the pits was fun, it's so loud that every time you turn it on it get's quite a bit of attention


too bad the motor that tilts it broke right before the last match in the finals at San Diego, with it our alliance would have had a greater chance at winning.. (that was the closest our team has gotten to winning in our 6 years ^_^ so i'm still stoked at how well we did.)

I would love to see some photos of it- perhaps even a video when/if you get it repaired.

We took a physics bicycle wheel demo and, calculating it's mass (heavily weighted welded iron) we estimated that at 3000 RPM we would exceed the tractive force of the wheels by 10x.

That roughly worked out to be able to flip the robot around in turning - in fact, it would flip around up to three robots. Of course 'spinning' the wheels to reduce friction would make it easier.

Sadly it was never built or further conceptualized. It may never be. But I still would love to see yours.

-For those that are asking or mention mems gyros, I'm talking about gyroscopic precession. I want the gyro to *turn* the robot- not to measure the turn. That means huge, massive spinning disks...

[spc295]

we are using our turret as a gyro and it works quite well.

[CJmango]

Originally Posted by purduephotog

-For those that are asking or mention mems gyros, I'm talking about gyroscopic precession. I want the gyro to *turn* the robot- not to measure the turn. That means huge, massive spinning disks...

Thanks! That makes so much more sense. Not being a participant in the game I guess I'm not as hard-core focused on improving driving power. I can see how huge gyro's could be useful with the low friction game. You guys are awfully smart.

[Ozeaden]

im also part of the team that had the gyro at san diego. all i can say is that it works very well. im the driver of that robot and it helps out with all turns tha i make. i was actually very supprised that other teams didnt implement this to their robots.

for more specific details about it, the actual flywheel weighs about 10 lbs, the frame around it weighs about 5 lbs, it spins at about 2400 rpm, and to my extent of knowlege, the gyro frame turns at about 45 degrees. it mostly makes all of the robots movements more fluid and accurate. not to mention also it will get me into harder turns or get me out of sticky situations.

for example, during one of the practice matches at san diego i was going and picking up balls and i accidently missed one by accident and it was just skimming my left bumper. i turned the gyro to the position for me to go left and turned left. in about a second, i did a full 360 and i picked up the ball. the overall circular momentum from the gyro is very powerfull and a huge advantage.