pic: Team 190 Concept Wheel

[Dave McLaughlin]

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[Peter Matteson]

I don't buy it. The person who designed this clearly was not from 190 because it is far to conventional a design for them. A WPI designer doesn't think outside the box, they don't even know where it is.

Disclamer: My BSME is from WPI (2002).

[swamp_child]

I can't believe another team thought of the same idea. Although our testing has shown that the Usain Bolt signature Puma shoes provide the best forward acceleration, where as the Nike Air Jordan's, or perhaps Air Force 1s provide the most upward mobility. The obvious problem with the Air Jordan's or the airforce 1s is that they require a full pneumatic system in order to fully utilize them. Have you looked into heelys at all? We feel that the reduced friction will probably allow us to accelerate as fast as we can.

[Dave McLaughlin]

We considered using the heelys when looking into a "mecanum shoe" or "Omni shoe" system. Further testing is required.

[Vest-Master]

Theoretically, if you gave it knees you could juggle balls without actually holding them. Twelve spokes. Twelve knees. Think about it.

[Navid Shafa]

Nice job, Dave. It's a shame you had to go back to WPI, because Skunkworks has been testing moon shoes and their ability to allow us to jump on top of the tower. Personally I don't understand why Ken suggested it, because we've already broke two robots in the attempt. Shawn said he'd like to do a flip flop tank drive, but Mr. Steele, said that the flip flops provide no arch support. Personally I'm advocating for a croc swerve, considering the durability and little weight which it would add to the overall robot, but Mr. Steele just crinkled his moustache and said the classic "We'll talk about it later"

[Akash Rastogi]

Smelly-Train ™

[DonRotolo]

Question: When we finally get a water game, can the shoes be fitted with galoshes?

[Dave McLaughlin]

We have not tested galoshes, however I'm happy to inform you that flippers show much promise.

[PaW]

Nice work, Dave!

Will there be a "left shoe" wheel as well as a "right shoe" wheel?

I can see a new interpretation of "toe in"

[Lil' Lavery]

Hmmm, this all but confirms my theories that 190's success results from magic. That's clearly a sunwheel.

[Nuttyman54]

This design opens up entirely new possibilities for integration with the Nike+iPod Sport Kit to track the distance traveled with a simple pedometer

[JohnCushion]

These could also be used in combat robotics, seeing as they are based off of combat boots. It would be part of a weapon/locomotion system.

[ChaosX73]

Are you going to integrate it so that the wheel is also used as your ball-kicking method? I think it would be hard to control if you did that. Especially with autonomous mode.

[Dave McLaughlin]

Currently we are using a separate, yet identical Shoe Wheel as our kicker. However, if we need to cut weight, we plan on lining up on a ball and then driving backwards to kick the ball with the front of a shoe.