pic: #833 "teaser"



This is a closeup of team 833's 2005 bot. We are riding ultralow this year (right now the chassis is TOO low and needs to be raised .25"). The wheel on the front is a 4" Cat-Trak Transwheel from omniwheel.com.

This image was taken during our first drive test of our new drive system, performed Friday night in our school's cafeteria. This is where we have to go for all our carpet tests.

Your robot looks awesome. Really nice and low. Actually those transwheels are the same wheels we ordered, but we’re not going for low rider. Are you guys going to be powering your transwheel or just going to use them for their inner wheels to help turning?

Looks awsome love the omniwheel.

The original plan was not to drive the omniwheel, but we realized that it might be a good idea.

team 833’s biggest problem in the past has been wheels. Our rookie year we had four wheel drive with the 8" Skyway’s. The sideways friction and low weight of our robot gave us no control. Last year we tried a four wheel drive with pneumatic Skyway wheels. We had so much traction that we could only turn on the go. We makeshifted some omnis out of cable ties. So…

Last night we did our drive test with our new omnis on the front, and the level of maneuverability and control that we had was absolutely amazing. We could spin it at a rate of about 2 rotations per second, around the axis of the back wheels.

If you’re planning on using only these blue omnis, you will have no control over your robot. If another robot hits you, you will slide all the way across the field before you stop. You might want to reconsider. They have a lot of forward/backward grip though.

Why’re you using just the skyway wheels? They’re very easily pushed… and with the use of the omni wheels like you currently have it, you could replace the skyway wheels with wheels with much more traction, and be able to push better and not get moved around as much, meanwhile still being able to smoothly turn. Just a thought.

That is really really low, But it looks really cool.

We rigged up the Skyways to do a test as soon as our omnis came in. We might still be putting different wheels on the back. As soon as we lift the chassis to a more reasonable height (tomorrow morning) we’ll do a more intensive test, involving pushing on the bot and maybe even ramming into it with last year’s bot.

It’s getting a little late to be ordering different wheels though… Here in Hawaii it takes 4 days for us to receive something that was ordered 2nd day air. We always end up finding something we forgot to order earlier.

you have the right idea i think every one is going with low ground clerence but i would be careful to go that low becasue you take the chance of the lip of the frame getting caught on maybe a pulled up thread from the carpet so just take into consideration (not likely but still as you know anything at a FIRST competion is possible) Travis