I have gone back into the RobotThoughts Lego Robot Database and pulled out some of my favorite Robot designs. This Lego Mindstorms chassis was one of my favorite and most versitle. It had good clearance and lots of tourque.
I have been looking for a way to
eliminate the difficulty of turning and ground clearance
problems of a regular treaded tank. This design seems to solve
most of the treaded vehicle problems.
This chassis uses four treads turned 90 degrees.
Worm gears drive the treads.
This design has exceptional ground clearance.
You can see the worm gears mounted on twoTechnic triangle panels. I have instructions
on how to build this design below.
This is a versatile chassis, so I played around with some possibilities. Here I
mounted a pneumatic arm on the front.
Just a detail of the pneumatic switch controller in the back.
With so much clearance underneath, I could mount an air compressor.
Or a simpler design with light sensors that can roam about freely.
Here is an Mpeg movie of this robot in action.
This is the code I use to drive the light sensor version.
mermaldad February 24, 2007
That’s an interesting design. However, I’d think that it would have the disadvantages of both wheels and treads. Since most of your treads are not on the ground, you don’t get the traction of a traditional tank design. But you still have the loss of power associated with moving a tread.
Nevertheless, it seems to be working for you and it suggests some interesting possibilities. Thanks for sharing!
Rich March 15, 2007
It was a fun little design with high ground clearance, but it certainly had the drawbacks you noted.