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you dont see many tracked bots around which i dont see why since they are very powerful pushers and want to know a few thing for future reference
is there and extra weight allowance for tracked bots and what are the main pros and cons about them since i dont know loads about them
Yes, tracked bots get 10x the weight limit...
so in FW's, how much would they weigh?
10x 13.6kg, so 136kg
....and if you believe that, you'll believe anything :proud:
that's why major damage is allowed to compete with the heavyweights
how i see it regarding tracked robots:
why would they get a weight advantage??
you dont see many becuase they are difficult to get right, they are bloody complicated to work out, expnesive and they wouldnt have that much more pushing power than a basic 4wd feather, maybe a fraction more but not enough to matter or notice.
they do look cool but that is about it
Why are they so complex to build?
How can it be less complicated than buying a wheel with nut insert and just screwing it on. No need to make life difficult for yourself, theres more to go wrong, more expensive and heavier (I would imagine)
tracks are put on vehicles that are designed to go off road and over stuff. since arena floors are flat (ish) there is no need for the added weight/expense/hardship that tracks bring
Tracks were popular in the earlier series where there was requirement to climb over obstacles and such, no real call for it now. Only current robot that uses them is Terminal Ferocity, however there are tracked robots on the way in the beetle and FW class (both built by ewan, take a look at his build threads), and there are quite a few in the antweights, but the tracks are a bit more readily available and easier to impliment at that size.
I love tracked robots personally and would like to build more, but they are difficult to get right without some good engineering unfortunately :( the thing that attracts me is being able to keep traction with something when another robot gets underneath you, which is difficult in wheeled robots without having very large wheels like Seraph.
Tracked robots give you awesome traction.
As for a weight advantage.... there isn't one. You get one for legged robots!
Couldn't you just use modified blue wheels and drill motors to have tracks?
It could be an idea?
Do it
I'm confuzled, do what?
That. Thats how we'll find out if it works or not :DQuote:
Couldn't you just use modified blue wheels and drill motors to have tracks?
youve made the topic, you have to do it now!! dont let this be like the middleweights!!
No idea how it would even work and were you can get tracks made
Heavy rubber with metal rivited to it?
no you couldn't unless you modified blue wheels to the point that they're barely 'blue wheels'. matt why not build a tracked middleweight, 2 birds, 1 stone
That's not all that hard :)
ok, explain to us your marvelous and simple way of turning blue wheels into a functioning track system
I would like to build a mw tracked bot but not many people seem to be building them
there is a reason for that :)
maybe people are waiting to see what you'll come up with before they build there own
a few people build tracked ants
the thing with tracks is they are too much pain for very little gain
Add something spikey/sticky to blue wheels, make some tracks out of metal and heavy rubber belts or something. Make them at the right size so once they go on the blue wheel it very tight and add some sort of guide to them
I don't really know if it would work in theory, but most if my ideas don't. I have way to many future plans :lol:
i doubt that would work well
I know have 2 sets of cogs driven by a drill motor and then have 2 sets of chain around the cogs with bars welded to the chain
I like ben's idea more, it could actually be done :)
The best way to do it would be to use conveyor chain (or regular chain with plates welded on, a la Limpet) since belt systems tend to be more prone to the track coming off. They also have the advantage of being more durable, albeit heavier.
gears? sprockets?
good pic
[attachment=0:3na4lxjh]dscn3518g.jpg[/attachment:3na4lxjh]
any videos of that bot?
the problem is that will give no grip on an arena floor, have you ever seen any of trax's fights?
here's a couple of the improved version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bDYYlpkBds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFogAMh9xro
yes you could make a system like this but why bother? even if you made the tracks from rubber i see no advantage to this design in combat robots. there's a reason why there are barely any tracked fighting robots
The problem with tracks are if you dont have enough grip (ie using metal tracks) then you just end up sliding around, and all that weight in the system is wasted, if you have too much grip (ie soft rubber) then you put huge loads on your drive system, a tracked robot needs alot of power to turn. I've got a set of stainless tracks that were orignally going on Battleaxe (didn't due to time) these are similar to what 101 used, 101 and ST are probably the only competetive bots that seemed to work well, 101 had rubber pads stuck on the tracks.