Chassis Connections

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Katie_UPS

So, I'm on a team that does a lot of welding. And by a lot, I mean that every robot since I've been on the team has been welded- the arms, the frames and -the title of the thread- the chassis. The other three robots that our team has made have been kit frames. So, to incite your responses:

How do you keep your 'bot -but more specifically, your chassis- together?

This isn't strictly true. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/24740

Anyway, Shaker used a pretty simple - if non optimized - chassis with some 1/4" AL plate, standoffs, and 80/20 extrusion to connect the two wheel modules. Standoffs were made on a lathe and secured with 1/4-20 bolts (1/2 bolts for the combination standoffs and axles), and the 80-20 was fastened by tapping the extrusion's holes and bolting them onto the chassis. It weighed a fairly reasonable weight: I think a fully driving base with compressor and everything was 65-70 pounds, with no attempts at all to reduce weight. (We wanted a low CG and we were consistently underweight the entire year)



The chassis worked just fine all year, but it really isn't that well designed. Look at the cross section and you'll see it's a lot more C-shaped than we wanted. Prechargning a pneumatic kicker caused it to noticeably deflect. We also had the electronics mounted several inches higher than we needed to which took room away from a hanger. If we did it again I would take the 80-20 structure and mount it much lower on the chassis.