pic: Prototype Drivetrain

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by Edoc'sil

The others were more polite about this, I am not. Wheels in the center like this are dumb. In January we build a DT like this, just with the wheels in the logical positions and all of them powered. Surprise! It has 0 turning radius as well! It also was almost imposible to have any fine control of the movement. After about 15 hours of testing I was still the only one who could drive the thing. Currently we are modifying our DT with a lower gear ration to gain more precision, and a shifter to maintain speed.

If you are set on this idea, build it during the off season and try it out, I am all for learning. But please, don't build this during those 6 tense weeks, you team will murder you.


Bluntly, Edoc'sil

Just to add to this, it seems that a main reason behind this drivetrain is a zero turn radius. Take a look at some traditional 6 wheel skids in video, they all have zero turn radii as well, except without the loss of control.

08 was the last year we had basic drivetrain (bumps changed things this year and regolith did last year), watch teams like 968/254, 1114, 217, 1717, 330. These bots were incredibly manuverable and they all had a zero turn radius.

Edit: Check out this thread. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=85710, watch the video...I know its an 8 wheel, but the concept is the same. All of the wheels are on the outside and they have no problem with manueverability.