We can’t really afford to test different wheels and rods and tubes for our over the bumpers intake, but are wondering what the more durable options are. We’re concerned with the intake getting hit by a robot or a wall that runs into us. Are any of the options better or worse at sustaining trauma?
Thank you
Our experience has been that the side plates holding it together and the joints/links that raise/lower it take the most damage. We tend to use aluminum hex shaft through the wheels/roller tubes. We seem to make our roller tubes from PVC. You should check out the Ri3D you tube videos for good examples. Or video on TheBlueAlliance.com of winning robots from previous years.
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You may want to consider making the structure of your intake out of a material like polycarbonate. It can flex quite a bit and then return to its original shape. Your intake will feel “floppy”, which is a bad thing for most robot components, but a good thing for something dangling out of your robot in a dangerous area.
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If you end up using any variant of a flex wheel they fit rather nicely around 5/8 polycarbonate tubing.
It worked really well for us in 2022.
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