pic: Wave Robotics Drive Teaser

[Mark Holschuh]

It looks great! Obviously you have access to more machine equipment than your team had last year. We're looking forward to seeing it sometime soon at the EAA.

[Tyler Olds]

Thanks for the compliments and questions, I will try to do my best with some answers!

The drive is made of a "longitudinal walking beam" rigid module on both sides and pivots sing a shaft with two bearings. The suspension is composed of springs and dampers using a pneumatic cylinder that is pressurized. To reduce the weight of putting a compressor on the robot and to counter-act the “see-saw” effect, we are using a linear actuator that will lock the suspension in place when traveling on flat ground. To help with going up the bump diagonally, we decided to use Omni wheels (double wide on each side) on the backside of the robot. The effect of this is whenever we go over a bump at an angle; the robot will actually center itself automatically. It does work if we go over backwards, but not as well. The robot also has 8” of cross-wheel travel when the suspension is unlocked.

I hope this helps clarify some of the features on our robot. Please feel free to post any more questions (or compliments of course )

[Chris is me]

I love it.

I think this year there will be two classes of competitive robots: Robots that can repeatedly and reliably go over the bump with insane flexibility, and variations on your standard 6 wheel drive (with 8 wheels, or big wheels) that trade a little less bump security for added traction on the ground. A winning alliance will need to have both of these to be as successful as possible, IMO.

I know I've already given my props (or "sucked up" depending on how you wish to put it), but I still think stuff like this is SUPER COOL.

[rath358]

Wow. That looks amazing. Something tells me that you guys are going to clean up again.