Wheels ?

[Bad Wolf]

I’m currently looking into and planning my first Ant Weight, and I was looking at 6 wheeled robots from the heavy weight divisions as some designs I liked. Then I wondered about having 6 wheels on an ant for Push power, my biggest concern would be the weight issues of the motors, wheels, batteries etc. So I’m just wondering if there are any out there and if so what are some of the ways around the problems of weight?

Thanks

Bad Wolf

[Ocracoke]

Depends on how you plan to drive the 6 wheels I think. If a miniature gear system could be used, then I can't see why it couldn't work.

The biggest weight component I found on my antweight Osu was the battery and speed controller though to be fair, the battery was a LiFePO4 and the speed controller was a Sabretooth and there are much lighter alternatives/combinations out there.

The weight of 6 25mm wheels from Nuts and Bolts (nutsandbolts.co.uk) is only 18 grams so I wouldn't worry too much. I used some foam wheels and drilled out some weight saving holds into them with my trusty Dremel.

[Bad Wolf]

Ahhh I forgot to mention I’m a MASSIVE noob... haha so in my noob mind I presumed it would just work the same way 2 or 4 wheels would work, not needing a gear system. Is a gear system tricky? It sounds like hassle :/

Yeah im sure you could reduce the weight in the wheels quite easily but I’m guessing there no scope for that in anything else motor/battery wise, other than buying them lighter/smaller etc!

Thanks for your help Ocracoke!

Bad Wolf

[Ocracoke]

A gear system can be fiddly, especially at the Antweight size and I don't know of any belt driven Antweights either.

The very simple option is to run 6 motors, one per wheel but 6 motors will mean a significant portion of the weight is devoted to this (approx 60g) and you have the added complication of finding a speed controller that is light enough but able to support 3 per side and have enough voltage from the battery as well (though saying that, the micro geared motors draw very little amperage so you might be OK on that front).

Tradeoff here is the armour. Osu used very thin Polypropylene but that was down to the weight of the electronics and the wooden frame. I am in the process of rebuilding that with 3mm PVC that should be more suitable.

I think, without having tried it, a pair of speed controllers that supports ~10A with 2S from a LiPo battery *might* work here but it is really at the edge doing a bit of rough calculating. 4WD might be a better call.

[Bad Wolf]

I’m starting to see why I’ve not seen many 6 wheeled robots at Ant Division haha! Thank you again for your advice! Might get back to the drawing board then!

Bad Wolf

[Ocracoke]

I'd also check out http://robotwars101.org/forum/ if you've not yet, they have plenty on there for Ants. I'll also bring Osu to the meet in March to show how I've built that.

[Bad Wolf]

Cheers! That would be really helpful! I’d like to see that! Yeah for some reason I tend to look on this form more, I have both bookmarked though! Thanks again

Bad Wolf

[sean retro]

You could if possible, use a really small drive belt for you six wheel ant bot. That way you'll only need to use two motors instead of six.

[Bad Wolf]

Kinda like Tracks? But without the .... tracks lol! So the two motors inside powering all 6 wheels, would that give me any advantage over just using 2 motors to power two wheels though?

Bad Wolf

[Ocracoke]

It'll definitely mean 6 powered wheels, which means more traction but if the belt goes, it means a loss of power and, depending on how it is setup, a lack of mobility on one side.

[Shakey]

I should point out as while the amount of tyre increases the pressure on them decreases. 6 wheels won't give you more pushing power over 4 wheels in ants (Where motors easily have the torque to slip wheels).