Tank Drive

A tank drive is a drive train with traction wheels that are all facing the same direction and are on both sides of the robot.

Simple and easy to design and program
- It has been done by every team at one point
- It is only two gearboxes(one for each side)
- We have done it before so we have CAD models and gearboxes
Easy to drive
- It can be driven with virtually any control scheme you can think of
- This makes it very intuitive for a rookie driver to pick up
Potential for high speed and pushing force
- Easy to gear the wheels for whatever pushing and speed is needed.
Weight efficient
- It is relatively light depending on how you do it
- Less motors are required per wheel

4 CIMs:

Because 6 is overkill when 4 can push around just about any opponent
6 weighs more (defeating a primary benefit of tank)
6 is taxing on the electronic aspects of your robot
2 is equally problematic because you lack the torque to push around other robots (defeating a different primary benefit of tank)
If the weight and alliance interactions change 2 or 6 CIMs can be considered

6 wheels:

4 wheels have too long of a wheel base and creates scrubbing
scrubbing is where the wheels have a lot of friction with the ground while turning causing it to not turn well
8 adds too much weight and reduces the likelihood you’re doing direct drive on the center wheel
With this you either need to do a drop center or make the end wheels omnis
- A drop center will have more traction with the ground
- Omnis on the front and back are easier to predict for autonomous programs

4 to 8 inch wheels

frame dimensions:

typically err on the side of leaving around an inch in every direction between your perimeter and the sizing restrictions
Vertically don’t get TOO close
Have your frame longer then it is wide
Make sure wheels are a few inches apart from each other ro reduce tipping