pic: The real robot - Week One work

[Andrew Schuetze]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze

There don't appear to be any as of yet. We'll be giving it a full test this week. It is extremely grippy with the plastic pulleys. The spec sheet linked above quotes friction coeficients for steel as well. This is 'v' belt @ 0.500 width on outside. The belt actually rides on the sides as it doesn't seat on the I.D. of the pulley. This means there are two surfaces gripping instead of one.

Well the real test on this system came in Katy, Texas during the LoneStar regional competition. They gave us fits all weekend long. During hard stops the belts would jump off the pulleys. We increased the tension and even added a flange on the side of the pulley, none of which eliminated the problem. It was very frustrating as we had driven the robot hard on the test field in the shop but nothing matches the punishment of competition. After we were eliminated in the quarterfinals in Texas we began the switch over to #35 ANSI rollerchain and sprockets and never had a problem again with the drive-train. This allowed us to put in a dead-reckoning / closed-loop hybrid mode which could clear 2 - 3 lines depending upon robot traffic.