Hypothetical Situation - Stairs

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by Karthik

In 2006, our use of tank treads had very little to do with climbing the ramps that were on the field. We went with the treads because we felt we could get more traction by taking advantage of the longer contact patch between the tread and the carpet. Granted, this does seem a bit odd considering the equation for traction has no surface area component. When you're dealing with two surfaces that interlock in the way carpet and roughtop tread do, the traditional model for evaluating traction doesn't exactly apply. Regardless, we chose treads because we wanted that robot to be immovable, the benefit of climbing the ramp was an added bonus. Again, the complexity, maintenance and cost could not have been justified just for climbing when a much simpler solution could have sufficed.

Did you have any issues with the tank treads coming off while in use or have suggestions that you guys used? I noticed that is was a common issue for team 195 and during a few drive train lessons have heard that treads have problem staying on track. Your 1114, 1503, and 1680's robots are some of the top tread robots in my honest opinion.