pic: Unique drive concept

[Joe G.]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

ditch the turntable motor...add somesort of 'brake' or 'lock' to "lock" the turntable in 1 direction.

now just turn the right wheel forward and the left backward or vice versa and the turntable spins itself.


save yourself the weight and complexity of another motor.

Great idea, i'll experiment with this when I make a prototype.

You should be able to turn the chassis by tanking the two drive motors on the turntable... but that's in theory of course.

That was the plan for turning.

To echo what Sean said about high-siding the drive wheels - make sure the challenge does not require ramp-climbing of ANY kind. Even the shallowest of inclines will render your robot immobile. We experienced this challenge during this year's competition. I beg all teams to consider how to be most accomodating and complementary when designing a robot that interacts with another robot on your alliance - i.e. climbing ramps to score 15 or 30 points.

Another factor to consider with this design is when your robot gets into pushing matches - if your robot is lifted up even slightly on one end you will be at the mercy of your opponent.

The redesign has a feature that should compensate for this. The turret looks something like this now.

The spring (if gravity isn't enough) will push the center platform down up to 3 inches when lifted off the ground by ramp or defensive robot The result will look like this: