pic: 1751's 2010 robot hanging

Originally Posted by dmlawrence

In our testing, the side loading problem was not encountered. We geared our motors so that the stall torque was safely less than the belt's breaking force. Once the side load reaches about 150 pounds, the motors have difficulty moving the robot, but the belts still do not break.

In the competition, we'll try to enter only head-on pushing matches.


Dave

Good strategy idea. In our testing, the Brecoflex belts didn't actually break when heavily side loaded, but rather began to delaminate. A solution that helped the problem was to bevel the corner of the belt (also made it turn better), as well as put flanges on all idler pulleys to keep the belt supported fully.

I'd love to see some videos of your team's matches once the regionals start, as it looks like you guys built a beast of a bot.