Alright, so i know we all remember the whole “what speed controllers are allowed” question in who wants to be an engineer. My question is are brakes legal? i think so, and i haven’t seen anything in chapter 8 (the robot) about it. i think that having “brakes” as an answer was just a joke.
Do people think its legal? is there a rule against it?
I believe they said that ONLY the wheels and speed controllers were allowed. I tried to check but it wont let me on the rules site. You should try switching the speed controls from brake to coast and see which one works the best on the surface.
Brakes like disk or drum brakes? I don’t see why not, although you’re still limited by the low traction of the rover wheels. Why are you interested?
It depends on your definition of brakes.
If by brakes you mean, things that would contact with the ground to slow you down. Then Rule R06 seems to have you there.
R06:
No other forms of traction devices (wheels, tracks, legs, or other devices intended to provide traction)
are permitted.
I would be willing to bet that they would count little “feet” that are put down on the ground to provide traction or at least friction, which they wouldn’t take kindly to.
Now if your definition of brakes are those like on a car or a bike that stop the wheel from spinning. You’re more than welcome to try it, however from our brief testing, it seems that even if you stop the wheels… you’re still going to go sliding a good bit. Now you can try it, because there doesn’t seem to be a rule against it… but who knows if it’ll work.
-Greg
Brakes as in brakes on your wheels or drive system? Yes. Brakes as in large pads of anti-slip drawer liner to put on the floor to hold your robot still? Almost certainly no, as the rover wheels are the only legal traction devices.
<R06> says you can not have any other traction devices. Our team, as well as many others, have asumed you can not use a braking system. The only the that you can control the tires with are the new jaguars and the old victors.
But you could do it using programing to create a anti-lock brake system
I can see no rule which would make this illegal but looking at how much the wheels will slide I can’t see this being a useful mechanisms. I figure that it will just make it easier for another team to push you. For a real world example think about Anti-lock Braking systems; they allow the driver to maintain control over his car by keeping the wheels moving.
But, coming back to your original question, no, doesn’t seem to be illegal.
Are you talking about a car style brake or a brake that contacts the floor?
If it’s a car style brake where it uses some kind of mechanical force to slow down the speed of the wheel to slow the robot down it should be legal, but you should be able to accomplish the same effect by putting the jumper on the speed controller into the brake position.
If you’re talking about a brake that would contact the playing surface then no. It’s not legal because nothing is allowed to touch the playing field except the wheels of a robot.
One idea that ive had is for there to be a brake system designed in a way that only wheels touch the ground, but they would be perpendicular to the way your robot is moving so they add friction and slow your robot down when they touch the ground. Basically a swing in the middle of your robot with lots of wheels that will hold itself against the ground.
It could also possibly be used for faster starting by pushing off the ground.
thanks guys, i was talking about car brakes. one of my teammates wanted to know.