pic: Concept 8wd Drivetrain

[JVN]

Originally Posted by Damien1247

This may be something you need to ask 703...
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/27823

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/26312

And I can attest to how SCARY that drive train was. RUSH had their arm sheared off at the base when the decided we needed to get out of their way in 2007. Granted, their bot weighed the MAX legal amount that year but no one shoved them and the time they climbed our ramp they ripped our graphics clean off.

Does anyone have any quantitative measurements of their performance, or are we basing everything off anecdotal evidence (as usual)?

an-ec-do-tal - adjective
based on personal observation, case study reports, or random investigations rather than systematic scientific evaluation: anecdotal evidence.

Yep, 703 was great at pushing in 2007. They had an incredible defensive machine. Yet... I bet that NO ONE made any quantitative measurement of it's performance. Here is what I would looooooooove to see:

• Step 1 - Measure it's linear pulling force while on carpet (use a fish-scale).
• Step 2 - Remove all but the 4 outer wheels.
• Step 3 - Throw the extra wheels on top of the frame, so the overall robot weight doesn't change.
• Step 4 - Measure it's linear pulling force again, while on carpet.

I speculate that these numbers will be extremely similar. Within 5%.
Maybe I'm wrong. I would love to be wrong. I would LOVE for someone to prove me wrong with some solid engineering analysis beyond the usual "703 pushed really hard, they pushed against truck town and everyone knows that nobody pushes truck town..."

Anyone? Anyone? I'd be genuinely happy being proven wrong. I don't have the time myself to do the kind of testing I'm talking about.

And John, if the students on the team decided they wanted to do an 8 wheel drive just because it would be fun to do and they would learn something would you do it? I realize FIRST is about inspiring but is it not also about teaching? My personal opinion is that if the students say they want to do something after a mentor has explained to them the problems then it is not our job to over ride their decision, instead we should support them. Yes it may fail but then we have a good lesson and can show them how to learn from mistakes. If it works, we learned something. "Because we can" may not be a good reason but, "Because we want to" is.

Absolutely. If the students decided they wanted to do something "just because they want to" even if it doesn't pass our cost-benefit analysis, I would need to respect that decision.

However I'm chuckling to myself, because I don't really believe our students would ever force me to back up that statement. I guess I'm lucky that our school district's values, our sponsor's values, team's values, our student's values and my values are all pretty much in line.

Then again... maybe it is a pied-pipe type of thing...
Moral of the story, you'd have difficulty finding a Robowrangler who has a bad experience, and our program keeps our sponsors, parents, school, and community happy; I can't really ask for anything more.

-John