What does it take 6WD/8WD to be successful?

[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

We've also found that using seperate control sticks for Forward/Reverse and Left/Right can help tracking. That way, when using "arcade" style driving (rather than tank style, where you control each side or the robot with a seperate stick) when you want to go straight forward you just lift your thumb off the "turning" stick, and you will always get a perfectly straight forward/reverse input to the robot. When you want to stay still and turn, you take your thumb off the forward/reverse, and all you get is turn.

Jason,

I'm looking for a little more detail on what you mean by this. I presume when you refer to "taking your thumb off" you're using a gamepad for driver control, rather than the traditional kit joysticks.

Most teams use the two kit-of-part joysticks to control the robot in "tank drive" style where only front/back on the sticks controls anything. In this way, the left stick controls front / back on the left side of the robot, and the right stick controls front / back on the right side.

The other common alternative is to have "arcade drive" where one stick controls the robot via front/back and right/left stick movements.

What I understand you to be suggesting is to instead use the two joysticks so that one of the joysticks controls front/back of the whole robot (like front/back in "arcade style") and the other joystick controls right/left turning (like right/left in "arcade style") but using 2 joysticks to provide this input rather than just one input. Am I correctly understanding what you are suggesting? Presumably, also rather than actually using two separate joysticks, you simply use a gamepad to provide the above control?

Our team has explored a lot of different drive approaches, but I don't think we've ever tried the above. Sounds like something our team should give a go during the off-season... Thanks for sharing!

--ken

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by TEE

Basically what the title says... what does it take to make a great 6 or 8 wheel tank drive?

Here's my requirements for a good drivetrain (take it for what it's worth):

1> It must be controllable -- Having a robot that can go 20'/sec doesn't help if it's uncontrollable.

2> It must satisfy the games objective and teams strategy -- Being able to push a tank across the field does no good if there is no tank to push. Look at the game and its requirements and design for that.

3> The controls must be intuitive -- The driver will be ineffective if he has to constantly look at his controls and not the playing field.

4> It must be reliable -- It makes no difference if you have the greatest crab/swerve/omni/14-wheel drive if it is constantly breaking. The kitbot drivetrain is reliable enough to take you where you need to go.

5> It must be maintainable -- Things happen, and even the most reliable drivetrain can be damaged. If you cannot fix it during the competition (IE fast) then you need to rethink some of what you are doing. Unmaintainable leads to uninspiring.

You'll note that I did not discuss type of drivetrain, this is because that is very game specific. The best drivetrain is the one that accomplishes the job at hand, regardless of its configuration.