pic: FRC488 - Six Wheel Drive Chassis

[Dan Petrovic]

Originally Posted by Cody C

Not necessarily more maneuverable, But I bet it is nice to have the 'bot spin around it's center set of wheels instead of whichever four happen to be touching the ground

Wouldn't the spinning of the robot automatically lift the front and back wheels up and equal distance from the floor? Kind of like when your arms raise up when you spin around.

[Cody Carey]

Originally Posted by InfernoX14

Wouldn't the spinning of the robot automatically lift the front and back wheels up and equal distance from the floor? Kind of like when your arms raise up when you spin around.

Maybe on a perfectly 4-way symmetrical robot, but in My team's experience, It stays on 4 wheels and rocks back and forth... Whichever four wheels happen to be touching are the ones the bot spins around. Kinda messes up high-speed maneuvering.

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by InfernoX14

Wouldn't the spinning of the robot automatically lift the front and back wheels up and equal distance from the floor? Kind of like when your arms raise up when you spin around.

The last two years I worked on center-drive, 6-wheel robots and both times we purposely loaded one end of the 'bot with a LOT more weight for game reasons. This also had the effect of having the same four wheels on the ground most of the time. We had little fore-and-aft rocking and the robot wasn't tricky to steer at all. Having said that, Madison makes nice chassises -- er, chasses -- er, chassisses -- what IS the plural of chassis anyway? I'd hire her to consult on our chassis, but since I'm now on a VEX-only team, I think we'd be wasting her skills.

[Fred Sayre]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

The last two years I worked on center-drive, 6-wheel robots and both times we purposely loaded one end of the 'bot with a LOT more weight for game reasons. This also had the effect of having the same four wheels on the ground most of the time. We had little fore-and-aft rocking and the robot wasn't tricky to steer at all. Having said that, Madison makes nice chassises -- er, chasses -- er, chassisses -- what IS the plural of chassis anyway? I'd hire her to consult on our chassis, but since I'm now on a VEX-only team, I think we'd be wasting her skills.

And you of course, are welcome to come consult on our team any time Stop by if you feel you are missing out on the hectic 6 weeks that is FRC this season!

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

what IS the plural of chassis anyway?

chassis, singular = chassis, plural
the plural would have a wee different pronunciation though

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Jane

chassis, singular = chassis, plural
the plural would have a wee different pronunciation though

One chass-ee, two chass-ease.

[Rick TYler]

Ah, jeez, I know that the plural of chassis is chassis, I was just funnin' around.

For the record, in 2005 our bot had six wheels with 2WD, but last year our very heavy, very strong chassis had six wheels with 6WD. In case anyone cared.

I AM going through FRC withdrawal now that kickoff is near, but I also fell asleep last night thinking about softballs, so maybe I'm becoming a VEXer, too.

I would like to bring our new, nearly-all-rookie team to visit an FRC team during build, so maybe I will take 488 up on their offer. We also have had friendly comments from team members at 1318 and 492. I think the "F" in FIRST really stands for "friendly."

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

Having said that, Madison makes nice chassises -- er, chasses -- er, chassisses -- what IS the plural of chassis anyway?

One can only venerate the intrinsic quagmires of the lexicon of the English language.