Omnidirectional drivetrains

[ajlapp]

you guys are absolutely right. the setup we used last year didn't account for traction because we were strictly an offensive ball collecting machine.

the small wheels inside the big wheels were made of "uhmw." it's basically a delron or teflon type plastic.

this isn't to say though that the killough can't achieve good traction.......i don't think that we'd ever use the drivetrain if we were planning on going defensive, but i will say that the stuff you'll see from us this year will definately have much more pulling power. including the bot you saw at competition we have four prototypes either working or near working with all different types of wheel assemblies. two of the bots use the omni-wheel design, and two use the original spherical wheel concept.(which by the way may turn out to be the more high traction of the two designs.)

for the record we have a delphi type swerve system also. we love this drivetrain, but chose the killough for it's uniquness and coolness factor, not because of it's performance.

i'd encourage teams to check this drivetrain out for the upcoming season. start now though! as with the swerve or other high complexity drivetrains, control issues will put a damper on your season if you don't have ample time to tweak. not to mention the extremely steep learning curve for beginning drivers.

we were super pumped to be the first to use the killough in competition, so i hope we inspired evryone to venture out into uncharted waters! if you have any questions feel free to ask...we love talking about the bots and how to make improvements. thanks for all the cool replies.

Anthony Lapp
lead design (killough fanatic) -- Superior Roboworks

##i'll try attaching pics of the other bots so people can check out what we've done.......we offered people a chance to drive one of the bots at the regionals we attended, if you didn't get a chance see us this year and we'll make sure you get a chance to give it a ride.

[ajlapp]

pics of the bots

[Moshingkow]

oooh, the wheels were sliding? hmmm what if they were on bearings? that would allow them to slide, and still have the forward traction that I desire...

[Marc P.]

*drools* Yeah, that's definitely the coolest drivetrain I've ever seen...

At nationals I had a good conversation with someone about how the whole system works. I believe it's driven by three crosslinked joysticks (not in software mind you, but literally, three interconnected joysticks, one for each axis, tied together by a metal apparatus) Movement was achieved by moving the center of the apparatus in the direction of which you wished to travel, if I'm not mistaken. Can anyone confirm this?

[Clark Gilbert]

I got to drive the top one when a group of TechnoKats went over to check out the "Kiwi" bot (am i right?) in Chicago (?). The controls were somewhat easy to pick up on (3 joysticks linked together) and it drove like nothing else....

Very Cool

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by ajlapp
two of the bots use the omni-wheel design, and two use the original spherical wheel concept.(which by the way may turn out to be the more high traction of the two designs.)

I had a hard time envisioning how AJ's sperical wheel base would work, but I did a little Google Search, and found a couple videos which show a slightly different version in action.

I think you're right AJ. It looks like it has potential for a fair amount of traction.

[sanddrag]

All I can say is OH WOW!!!!!!!


/me digs through childhood toys in search of legos.