Navigating the Minefield

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by =Martin=Taylor=

4" wheels and only about a 1/2 inch of ground clearance.

Strategies to overcome it?

more ground clearance?

[camalex3999]

This was a problem for my team last year. Our robot had six inch wheels and about five inches of ground clearance. Sometimes when we would drive over a ball on accident it would get lodged in between two wheels, which kept us from moving at all. I could see the same happening with a Frisbee that is upside down to a robot with wheels that are close together.

[Jeffy]

ground clearance > 1" combined with "skirts" of thin polycarb or zipties should mitigate the problem. (especially angled ones that allow the Frisbee to come out easy but not get in easy)

[=Martin=Taylor=]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

more ground clearance?

Or a set of tilting wheelies, like this, to keep the CG low.

The spacing of the wheels is also important. We found that robots with 6" wheels spaced closely together also have trouble getting out of the discs because the inner disc edge will want to ride tangent to the inner side of the wheel, presenting a poor angle of attack with which to climb out.

Sorry if that didn't make any sense. You need to do some testing yourself. But my point is, the problem is more complex than just bigger wheels.

Big wheels also suck.