We are using our leftover wheels from 2009. Is anyone else?:]
no but we are using regolif in some places, are these things COTS?
Don’t need to be.
Parts custom-made for FIRST and provided to FRC teams in the KOP for previous FRC competitions (e.g. 2006 FRC transmissions, custom-made motor couplers, custom sensor strips, FRC CMUcam II modules, etc.) may be used if the part is still functionally equivalent to the original condition.
I’m curious as to what you’re using them for. They’re a hard plastic, not well suited to driving on carpet. Maybe you’re using them in your gripper?
Regolith and rover wheels are both still COTS items.
I honestly don’t see why anyone would want to use Rover wheels on a robot, unless you riveted tread to them.
I’ve seen then used as wheels on the outer ends of a 6WD or on one end of a 4WD.
They’re usually used in place of omnis, but they’re essentially free for any team that was around in 2009.
… Now I want to dig out the 09 Robot and Drive it on carpet.
O.K. So we are making some slight modifications!
They have such little traction, they’re worse than omnis; without treads they may as well be unpowered casters.
From a budget wheel standpoint, I like the idea of using leftover 2009 wheels with treads attached. They’re a bit heavy on the ground, but still equate to a free-ish ~6" wheel this year.
Don’t worry, since AM still sells Rover Wheels they are still legal.
2041 used wheels in this configuration last year. I believe they cracked the spokes of their wheels at the Championship though. You may want to plan some simple AL plate reinforcement for them.
We have some spares just in case.
Despite the fact that we cracked the spokes with this wheel configuration last year, we would use it again. Our outer wheels cracked because our robot would always land hard on the far side of the bump. Our middle wheels started to crack because our robot had the tendency to climb vertically when we ran head on into other robots bumper to bumper. These wheels were simply not meant to handle that kind of repeated impact.
There is no bump this year and the bumper zone is back down near the floor. I don’t think it would be much of a problem. That being said, the aluminum reinforcements that 1114 made for us on short notice did look pretty sweet.
Last year we cut the spokes off, and used the centers as hubs/bearing carriers in our mecanums.