With lots of experimentation and many hours logged checking and rechecking different wheels, our team have put together several great custom wheels.

Deciding on the wheelbase and the type of wheels to use was one of the first things the team tackled.

 RC vs Track vs Omni Wheel

RC wheels

 

RC wheels had been used before but something more manoeuvrable, powerful and adaptable were needed so a tank kit was also experimented with but again the rollers were not going to be able to do the job through all the tasks required.

Tank Rollers

Another of the tank models

A custom build seemed the most appropriate – one idea was to use lots of mini wheels, but how to make them go over obstacles and manoeuvre in several directions was a difficult challenge

Omni Wheel

Enter the mighty Omni wheel. Each wheel comprised of one enormous wheel surrounded by rollers

As you can see the wheels are a little slippery on the wood floor and that the RC wheels were able to take down the mighty Omni wheel by just pushing it, so is more friction needed in this wheel or a different type of roller?

So we should be on our way to creating the base of the robot and deciding on a wheel type. Will the EPIC Omni wheel be the favourite, stay tuned to find out.

 

 

 

Wheels Up in T-5, 4, 3, 2, 1