pic: Team No. 1002 The CircuitRunners 2005 Robot

[Gcube9x]

Originally Posted by stealth13777

I would also like to know how the omni drive works for the other team that has it.

Doesn't it work the same as ours? Two wheels go forward, two go reverse, low friction gives most of the power of all 4 motors in the forward direction.

[jpsaul7usa]

Our wheels work like traditional omni-wheels. They aren't at 45 degree angles from the sides like yours, so we really only have 2 motors for any given direction if we're pushing using any of our sides. We were thinking of using AndyMark's converter to put 2 motors on each wheel, but the time and weight required didn't meet our needs. We're fast and graceful, and our team has a bad history of getting into pushing matches, so why bother? And I really don't want to see any harm come to those thin plexiglass panels I helped make ;p

Oh, and our wheels are custom designed. Each omni-wheel has 112 spacers, nuts, bolts, washers, wheels, and hubs, each hand assembled, tightened, and filed. We ordered the smaller wheels from the blue book but the supplier ran out, so abou 1/3 of our wheels don't match

This is going to make me sound like a dunce, but what are rack and pinion?

[mizscience]

very interesting design...

[Max Lobovsky]

Originally Posted by jpsaul7usa

This is going to make me sound like a dunce, but what are rack and pinion?

A rack is basically a gear with infinite radius. It's a straight line of teeth standing up. The pinion is the gear that meshes with the rack. By turning the pinion, you can move the rack along its length. Its a method for converting rotational to linear motion.

I think this robot brings the count of known holonomic drives this year to 4: 1257, 1002, 1212, and 1083

[alphastryk]

i love that pic...

we are going to be very competitive this year...

[Katy]

how is your center of gravity?

[speedbuggy76]

Our center of gravity is good actually. The arm is quite heavy but we have some good design put into that drive train (the wheels are pretty far apart ).

[sforsancho]

Team 649 is using a killough drive system this year, and it is slick.

pictures to come

[Andrew Y.]

Originally Posted by speedbuggy76

Our center of gravity is good actually. The arm is quite heavy but we have some good design put into that drive train (the wheels are pretty far apart ).

ilove wut u said matt.....i really do

[stealth13777]

Interesting way of making the omnis. I have seen ones like yours on one other team's bot and wondered about them. Matt couldn't have put his comment any better.

[Gcube9x]

Originally Posted by Andrew Y.

ilove wut u said matt.....i really do

I am soo anticipating our first match!

[Jeremy Roberts]

Originally Posted by sforsancho

Team 649 is using a killough drive system this year, and it is slick.

pictures to come

I look forward to seeing it. We particularly faced the challenge of weight distribution on the robot. Our drive relies on some pretty heavy feedback control to keep us going where we want to (with tetras, without, arm extended, retract, alternate base configurations etc.)

<Message to CircuitRunners>
I know your excited but don't use the CD forum as a chat room to talk among yourselves. Take it to the CircuitBoard or some instant messaging software. I can't wait either.
<End message>

[Pin Man]

getting at the controls looks to be a pain... I know we always make sure we have our electronics at easy access because somehting always has to go wrong...


Looks great though... Can't wait to see it in action...

[speedbuggy76]

the electronics really is not that hard to get to. I know it is not very pretty like on some other robots, but it is labelled and is not very difficult to access. We also had a harder time doing electronics this year because of the odd amounts, shapes, and areas of where we could mount to.

[Nathan Pell]

Originally Posted by Max Lobovsky

A rack is basically a gear with infinite radius. It's a straight line of teeth standing up. The pinion is the gear that meshes with the rack. By turning the pinion, you can move the rack along its length. Its a method for converting rotational to linear motion.

I think this robot brings the count of known holonomic drives this year to 4: 1257, 1002, 1212, and 1083

Just curious... how did you know that 1083 is doing holonomic again this year? I am just wondering....

Thanks!
Nathan Pell
Team Leader