Drop-center drivetrains: Why?

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by IKE

Do a little more digging. A common questiont that many 6x6 drop center guys will ask is "How much drop are you using?". While a fair question, the same amount of drop will have various effects on different chassis. CG placement and Chassis stiffness, and overall goals/objectives play a big part into what is considered effective amounts of drop.

As an example, 95 has used dropped center designs when the robot did not have precise manipulators mounted on the chassis, where the robot rocking back-and-forth did not adversely affect controllability. On two robots that DID have bigger arms that needed to be controlled with precision we used omni wheels on the four corners so that the robot was more stable and the arm was easier to control.

EDIT: To avoid confusion, I am talking about a 6wd platform with two traction wheels in the middle, and omni wheels at each corner.