What kind of speed is everyone getting?? We are a rookie team, so we dont know what speed we should be expecting to acheive.
With our current gear ration (2:1 with the drill motors set in low gear), we are getting about 2.5-3 feet per second…I have seen some people saying they are getting 10 fps… what should we be aiming for?
Speed is pretty much relative in this game. It is more or less dependent on what sort of strategy you are doing. If you are going after the goals and intend on pushing them, 2 -3 fps is probably about right. If you intend to run around the field and pick up balls, then 6+ fps is about right. Keep in mind that speed is only part of the game. Going 10 fps won’t do you much good if you can’t push the goals around.
Jeremy
Team 401
15 fps and we can push/pull a goal.
single speed gearbox.
Chiaphua motors.
Electronic current control
Here is how it was for the past years… With two drill motors:
1~2 ft/s second is really really slow, but TONS of pushing force.
3~5 ft/s is a general speed for a strong pushing robot.
6~9 ft/s is usually the middle where robots aren’t the fastest and aren’t the strongest in pushing.
10~12 ft/s is for high speed robots that speed across the field for balls…
13~18 is REALLY REALLY fast robot, so fast that it’s hard to control… might risk some chance burning motors
>18 is insanely fast… two drill usually can’t handle this fast without tripping circuit breakers, or burning out motors, with 130lbs of weight.
These are just estimates anyway. Good for rookie teams and beginner teams. Veteran teams with 4 motor drive train or more, you know how fast your robot should go. 
Keep in mind that traction is just as important as speed, having a robot geared for 3 ft/sec with stock wheel chair wheels isn’t going to let you win a pushing match against decent tank treads or a custom wheel set even though the motor is geared for power. My opinion is you have to balance the speed you want to go with a certain amount of traction(the exact balance is unknown) With too much speed AND traction breakers /motor failure is likely. To little traction will result in wheelspin that doesn’t help much either. Too much traction on a power machine can cause a stall or excess wear on drivetrain componenets also
Remember to balance the two. I still think this year teams with wheelchair wheels (not the pneumatic ones but the stock ones) are going to be at a disadvantage for traction with 1 or more goals. Push/pull the goals is easy but driving around with a goal is MUCH more difficult if you haven’t already found out.
Ken just so that you know 1-2 ft/s is slow but this year it may turn out to be the robots that win all of the pushing matches (if they can get to a robot that is running at 6-9 ft/s). Oh well we will see come the competitions!!
I don’t know so sure about strongest robot will win a match for sure anymore… I used to think that pushing is everything in this game, now, I am more convinced that a fast and maneuverable robot can dominate a goal just as well as a really slow robot.
And, obviously with two goals you will need a lot of pushing force against your enemy because they will be concentrating on you as soon as you grab two goals… But if you grab two goals fast enough, and have some sort of break or lock down on the field, you might get away with a fast drive train instead of a strong one…
So I don’t know. A fast robot means it can control the flow of the game faster than their opponents. As for what they do after that, we will just have to see.
And I think a swerve drive would be GREAT for this game this year. You can run away really easily whether your opponent is a fast robot or a strong robot with tank drive.
Anyone with me on the speed side?
Speed will dominate.
Speed * Mass will be a powerful combination for kinetic strategies.
a fast robot that can ram the goal, can keep the goal moving faster than a slow robot can reach it. With skillful driving, the slower robot will spend the entire match chasing the goals.
A speedy ball handling robot can ignore 2 goals and still win.
*Originally posted by WernerNYK *
**What kind of speed is everyone getting?? We are a rookie team, so we dont know what speed we should be expecting to acheive.With our current gear ration (2:1 with the drill motors set in low gear), we are getting about 2.5-3 feet per second…I have seen some people saying they are getting 10 fps… what should we be aiming for? **
We ran our system last nite for the first time this year. We are running 2 drill motors and both Atwood motors in both high and low. We are also running 6 wheel drive. We can manuver as well as we did last year.
We pushed a 220lb student sitting on the carpet in low gear with a chasiss weight of about 80lbs with modest effort. Next test was no load in high gear. At 80 lbs we were in the uncontrollable speed zone. Probaly around 16 fps. At 130 lbs we should slow up a little.
How many motors are you shifting? Which ones? And what are you doing about the motors that aren’t shifting?
*Originally posted by PMGRACER *
**
We ran our system last nite for the first time this year. We are running 2 drill motors and both Atwood motors in both high and low. We are also running 6 wheel drive. We can manuver as well as we did last year.
We pushed a 220lb student sitting on the carpet in low gear with a chasiss weight of about 80lbs with modest effort. Next test was no load in high gear. At 80 lbs we were in the uncontrollable speed zone. Probaly around 16 fps. At 130 lbs we should slow up a little.**
This is great.
Just to let you know we tried our motors tonight and we can push one goal that weights 950lbs (4 students and 1 goal) easily. I believe that that is all the info you need right now! Also no comment on our speed!
Last night we tested our fully completed drive train and we easily pushed one of those goals with two of our engineers and one student int it. We also pulled our enigneer across the floor lying down on his stomach!
we can go 20 fps using two globe motors.
*Originally posted by thedillybar *
**How many motors are you shifting? Which ones? And what are you doing about the motors that aren’t shifting? **
Hey Matt. We are only shifting the stock Boesch trans. We have two drive assemblys, each with one drill motor and an Atwood motor. The motors are geared into a comman shaft which is then fed into the trans and from the trans into a custom housing which contains the stock planetary setup mated to a .500 dia output shaft. We are working out the details on shifting with the servos.
