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Subject: 
Re: Mechanical question
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Mon, 26 Jul 1999 21:01:49 GMT
Original-From: 
Laurentino Martins <lau@mail.AVOIDSPAMtelepac.pt>
Viewed: 
935 times
  
At 20:55 26-07-1999 Monday , Dennis Clark wrote:
In lugnet.robotics, Jon Shemitz writes:
I've been puzzling over this one, and I still don't really understand
it: Why can a bot with tank treads do a turn in place, while a bot with
four wheels geared together so that the front and back wheels on each • [snip]
Or is it that the wheeled version is concentrating all the sideways
force at four points, while the treaded version is spreading the same
force over a much larger area?

You are close here.  Tank steering is often called "skid" steering because
tank tracks are optimized for traction parallel to direction travelled and
have little traction in a tangent direction.  A look at the tread pattern
will show you why.  You only need a skid a little to get the steering to
work, and on a high grip surface (carpet) even your tank tracks will strain
when trying to turn.  Wheels on the other hand are OPTIMIZED to NOT allow
sideways motion at all, watching all those Goodyear tire commercials has
convinced me of that!


I don't know the other LEGO tracks, but the CyberMaster tracks confirm everything you said. They look like this (fixed font):

|    ----|
|----    |
|----    |
|    ----|
|    ----|
|----    |
|----    |
|    ----|
|    ----|
|----    |

Also, they are deeper in the center than in the edges.

I'm positive that they where designed to let the track be dragged sideways without much effort, while the pattern is clearly designed for front/rear traction.



Laurentino Martins

[ mailto:lau@mail.telepac.pt ]
[ http://www.terravista.pt/Enseada/2808/ ]

--
Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics



Message is in Reply To:
  Mechanical question
 
I've been puzzling over this one, and I still don't really understand it: Why can a bot with tank treads do a turn in place, while a bot with four wheels geared together so that the front and back wheels on each side always move together can not? My (...) (25 years ago, 26-Jul-99, to lugnet.robotics)

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