Suspension and/or Tread Drive Base Questions

[Trish Fisher]

Has anyone built a suspension and/or tread drive base? If so could you please tell me your thoughts on pros and cons for Stronghold. Also, does anyone have any links of that type of drive base/chassis? Thanks so much for your help!

[Dumper FTW 435]

435 has used tread drives a lot in the past. We're big fans of it in games that involve rough terrain or a lot of opponent team interaction. Both of those elements are featured heavily in this year's game, so I think it's a viable choice.

The main disadvantage to a tank drive is the lack of fine position control. Obviously, It's going to be harder to line up a shot with a tank drive compared to an omnidirectional drive. However, all of this year's shots will have to be close to the goal, so the exact positioning necessary for long distance shots won't be necessary.

I don't have any experience with using suspension. It seems like it would work for dealing with some of the obstacles, but I would be concerned about the complexity it would add to the robot. However, like I said, I don't have experience with it so maybe it is easier to implement than I imagine.