Tank Treads

[M. Mellott]

Team 48 has used Brecoflex belts with a lot of success over the years. Several pictures of past systems are available on CD. Some pointers:

• Keep the belts properly tensioned, but not too tight

• Protect the tread from sideload stresses as much as possible by using mutiple wheels/sliders along the area of the belt that contacts the ground, and keeping the "open" distance between the wheels/sliders to a minimum

• Use a belt profile with a middle inner rib as opposed to flanged wheels--we typically used TK10-K13

• If memory serves me right, we were using an 1880mm long belt with 4" wheels (2" boggie wheels) in our 36"-long tread module, and those belts were about $350...EACH...three years ago

Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I have to add something for the teams using tank treads...
Turning on carpet with treads causes extreme electrical loads on your control system. A tight turn is guaranteed to put drive motors into stall. Stall currents on CIM motors is 129 amps each. A four motor drive will draw 516 amps and effectively lower the terminal voltage of the battery by almost 6 volts.

[thefro526]

For some reason, I forgot about team 522, the Robowizards. They used tracks from 2003 to 2008 and they had a very effective system. (World Champs In 2006, IIRC)

Their 2007 iteration was quite clever and it solved the turning issue with the addition of a Ball Caster That was lowered to the ground with a piston and this allowed the drive train to lift itself up onto just the rear most portion of the tread allowing for efficient turning.

Here's a link to their previous robots in the CD Image gallery. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/tags/frc522

[Ryan Dognaux]

If you look back to the 2004 game, Team 234 used some unique treads that I haven't seen much since. May be a little overkill for this game, but you can check them out here nonetheless - http://www.thistle.uk.com/

[DSST\neal.ian]

I know that that kind of tread is exactly what most of us had in mind, and personally, I don't find them overkill at all. Especially when you want to be able to tackle the mounds head-on. We were looking for a custom, seamless tread plus components, and have heard rumors of a company who can do this for ~$800 total. Anybody have any leads? Thanks from team 2240.

[riptide]

This may help...

How to build track systems

[freshrobotics]

I'd like to know if anyone has any suggestions on where to buy tank treads from McMasters or andy mark?

[Hadi379]

379 has had alot of success with tank treads. To my knowledge, we have never broken a tread, at worst, the material on the surface of the tread tends to take alot of abuse requiring a replacement to be on hand. Furthermore, we have always lowered our center idler wheel, which only allows about half of the tread to make contact with the floor and may cause a teeter totter action, but with a little better turning ability.