Wheels?

Technical Technical Discussion
1

:confused: Can you take one set of wheels off the ground to replace them with another set to change the bots direction?

2

Assuming they are Rover Wheels, and it doesn’t cause your robot to exceed the 60 inch max height. There are no rules not allowing this.

3

Nothing that I’ve seen in the rules specifically prohibits that.

4

I think i know what you are asking, as we did a drive system like this in the past (2002).
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/13478

The only thing I can see that would prevent this is the location of the fixed trailer point you need on your robot, the interaction with the trailer, & potentially the angle your bot is at during the transistion.

As long as you use the correct wheels, I personally don’t see anything other than those details to look at as I said above that can cause a hiccup with that plan.

Best bet is to ask the official Q&A system though.

5

I wasn’t even thinking of the so called “fixed” hitch.
That does generate an interesting question. Fixed as opposed to what?
Can the wheels in fact be lowered thus raising the trailer point, and the entire robot with it? (I would also think we are only talking about .25-.5" to just barely raise the main drive wheels up.)

So I revise my statement. I would check on Q&A, the implications could be interesting.

You might need to find a way to get the hitch to remain stationary by mounting it to whatever “drops” down to raise up the rest of the robot.

6

You can do what you suggest and keep height constant if you drop the second set of wheels first and then lift the first set, keeping the “down” position of both sets of wheels the same. Should be no problem with the rules.

  • Steve
7

It would be difficult to keep the hitch height constant with a drop center wheel 6WD chassis.

8

You’d also have to worry about breaking out of your 28x38x60 inch envelope with whatever wobble you have.
Unless of course the envelope changes angular orientation with your robot. Otherwise if your robot tips slightly due to collision, you would violate the rule.

9

After our experience last year with not-square sizing boxes, we now know that the upper part of the robot should be significantly smaller than the base, just to prevent hassles like this.