Posted by Elgin C at 03/20/2001 1:08 PM EST
Engineer on team #237, Sie-H20-Bots, from Watertown High School / NVCC.
As the title states I believe that traction is key if you have any chance at winning. Our first robot that we built had the stock straight out of the box 6" wheelchair wheels on them. We had very little traction going up the ramp and so we made our ramp extender feature of the robot act as a counter balance to make it up the incline. But that didn’t work because we ended up tipping ourselves over a few times. Fortuanately we righted our selves in enough time to get into the endzone but lost major points for our alliance.
Our remedy: All four wheels were burned with a woodburner with a space in between all of the burns. If you do this make sure you do it in a well ventilated area though!!! The wheels give off alot of smoke when being burned.