pic: Anyone remember these?

Originally Posted by jason701802

The type of drivetrain would have almost nothing to do the robots ability to get air, that has a lot more to do with the shape of the bot and the speed it can attain. If you geared one of those to get air off the bump, you would be geared so high that you would be able to be pushed around my almost anybody.

Incorrect. The gearing has little to do with catching air. It's the large contact patch that the belt provides that allows little to no deceleration when driving over the ramp. The system is currently geared around 9-10 fps depending on battery level, which you should know is plenty of pushing power with this system.

One thing i can tell you from experience with those tracks is that even a small amount of pressure from the side would completely lock up the system and leave the bot immobile (and by this years rules, that wouldn't count as pinning).

The older version had this flaw, yes. It's been fixed in the newer models.

They also eat up the available weight pretty quickly, unless they have been significantly redesigned, (and the only thing that looks different to me is the gearbox) a pair of those easily weigh 60-80 pounds, without any electronics.

Current projected weight for the robot sits at 85 pounds, with all electronics, motors, and so on. Your large weight in the past was caused by inefficient mounting of the track boxes.

Another thing to remember is that the force of friction is based only on the coefficient of friction and the mass of the bot, not the surface area.

Yes, this is someone from team of the original creators and users of this drive system.

Yes, of course. The larger surface area aids in climbing, and climbing only. Without added idlers, the system is effectively a six wheel system. Once climbing, the belt between idlers allows the system to outclimb most other systems. During pushing matches, the low rolling resistance and high efficiency makes this system very attractive.