Though I would post this, haven’t seen it elsewhere. It only has 2 wheels, but uses stilts to balance.
I’ve seen one at the last championship, next to my old team’s pit area.
Their robot consisted of two 4" omni wheels, and they balanced themselves pretty good (even with all of that “drifting”).
This design has an turning mechanism however, where as the robot I saw used, “An object in motion tends to stay in motion” law.
I would love to see it in action. Do you have any videos?
Very cool, but we need video!
Ill make a video soon. Still need to put pictures of my hoarder robot, and haven’t got around to it. Ill try and do it this afternoon if I have time.
Very cool design, like that the tank is the controller. Is the battery underneath to help with the balance?
Maybe VEX can meld JVN’s love of cycles and America Choppers and get a VEX theme bike!
Thanks!
There is a removeable seat between the controller and rear motor, with the battery below it. Its more aesthetic than anything. The transmitter and steering moter are also in there.
I should have noted there are stilts on both sides to keep it from tipping over, although I dont think it leans on them much. Finding a way to do it without stilts is something I would like to do but seems to be quite the challenge.
Wasn’t able to get a video yesterday, and I am not at school today. Hope to do this Monday. Sorry I didnt get this done.
If you eliminate slop in the system as much as possible you could use an accelerometer and PID loop to get the motorcycle to “balance” while driving forward by correcting with the steering mechanism.
This is what I wanted to do, but it, as of now is extremely unbalanced. This is why I used flat wheels.
I built this as I went, and probably could have thought it out more. In order to keep it compact, the chain drive and motor provides alot of lean to one side.
I’m always tinkering with it though, im sure i’ll be able to work everything out.
Yeah, this was my original idea. Building it as I went, it proved almost impossible to keep it balanced. I’m always tinkering, and i’m sure ill figure the weight out.
How about a gyroscope? Just some heavy wheels that you spin up to a high rpm to have the gyroscopic effect. If you place the wheels vertically, it will be harder to push it over sideways. It definately works on those Tyco radio controlled motorcycles I used to play with!
I think this would take up a fair amount of room though wouldn’t it?
I’m trying to keep it to a motorcycle look as much as possible.
That being said, a gyroscope like your talking about is actually a good idea, that hadn’t even entered my mind. At one point, I started to make a tripod instead of the skids to hold it up. Can’t remember what ended up happening though…