pic: Doubble-wishbone Crab fender

[Solace]

Originally posted by Stud Man Dan
The suspension would have been of great use on this years game.. it would have kept all 4 wheels in contact with the surfaces at all times.. while battling on the edge of the ramp ( at carpet and the top ) many times whoever got most traction could win.. no matter how strong the drive train. This sort of suspension would be of great gain in that situation

actually, the easiest way to do that would not be a suspension per se, but merely have one of the axles on a pivot of some sort. If you don't quite understand what i'm getting at, take a quick glance at the back two wheels of this robot. They pivot freely so as to always keep surface contact.

There were a couple robots that i remember at nationals that had similar designs (can't remember numbers though). It could be done with a swerve drive like this (since it is coaxial, you shouldn't run into chain or motor alignment problems). The advantage of a pivoting system like this is that it will always keep the weight equally devided among the four wheels. A traditional suspension will keep all wheels on the ground, but different wheels will apply differing amoungts of force to the ground (making it less efficient.