I’ve seen several teams who use a center traction wheel or 2 that are smaller than the front and back ones, so that they don’t touch the ground when driving regularly, but supposedly help cross the barrier more efficiently. I would like to know the raised wheel assists the barrier cross. Thank you!
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Well, if you don’t have wheels in the center, your robot would slide along the c-channels or gears, meaning you might slidebackwards and damage your drivetrain. The center wheels spin, so when they contact the barrier they push the robot forward preventing the robot from sliding backwards.
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Your Center of Gravity will be lower when you are in the middle of the barrier, causing your barrier crossing to be more efficient and it will make it a lot harder for other teams to play defense on you.
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Yes I understand that, my team currently has 6 wheels. I am trying to learn why having the center/middle raised would be helpful before we decide to do it on our robot.
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From our experience, they are very useful, but you may want to get your driver(s) opinion(s) first. We used to have 6 4" wheels (4 omnis and 2 tractions, but I would recommend 3.25" instead of 4"), and whenever we tried to go over the barrier, when it got to the middle wheels we would be angled up a lot and it would be slower and harder for us to tip across and go over the barrier, but with 3.25" wheels for the traction wheels (what we have now), there is a lot shallower of an angle, and it makes us much faster going over the barrier. The only downside with smaller middle wheels (with 6 wheels and omnis on the corners, which is what I am assuming you have) is no resistance to being pushed from the side, which could be bad, but it also makes your drivebase driftier, so if your driver(s) like(s) the drift, then I would definitely recommend having smaller middle wheels. I hope this helps!
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