How to mechanically press odom wheels into the ground?

I was browsing the forums and I stumbled upon this post. One of the later replies to this post mentioned how odometry wheels should be mechanically pressed into the ground to avoid slippage (this reply).

I was just wondering how would you go about doing this? Thanks in advance

you mount your wheels on a pivot, and rubber band them into the ground.

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One way you could go about doing this would be to have the odometry wheel mounted on an arm with a joint connected to the robot. You could either just let gravity press the wheel in the ground or you could have a rubber band past the pivot point to press the wheel into the ground

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How would you go about rubber banding them into the ground? Thanks for the reply.

Thanks! I’m wondering how you would go about rubber banding them into the ground.

I was gonna do a whole cad reveal of my bot later, maybe I still will, but here’s my odometry wheel.


The idea is you would hinge it at the part on the right and maybe rubber band it to hold it down.
Edit: Yes, I know there are no bearing blocks. I used a lock bar on one side and the sensor is enough on the other.

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you can see two tracking wheels on hinges in this render in the back of the bot, you’d simple use rubber bands to pull the hinge down.

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Oh I see it now. This helps a lot. Thanks!

Here is a poor MS Paint drawing of how it may work


Sorry, but I don’t have CAD skills

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This is a very helpful drawing. Thanks!

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That’s really helpful! Thanks!

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You can also find some great examples here:

Position Tracking Wheels Mechanism

and here:

7842F 2018-19 Robot Showcase - Flywheel Control, Odometry, Engineering Journals & More

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