I (like many others) am trying to find something to do during this inter-season period.
I have loved tanks for a while and I figured I would try to do some R&D on a tracked system in VEX
I know that very few people have used the treads because they have issues. But if you have any experience or ideas on what keeps them from being competitive, I would like to hear them.
Thanks!
Without having experience with tank treads, my knowledge is that tank treads have more friction because the treads cover a larger area, so you will naturally be slower and take longer to turn, which is never an upside in VEX.
Well they take up alot more room than wheels, at least if you want to go at a reasonable speed. If you want to be as fast as wheels the sprockets need to be the same size but then the tread has to do a full loop, taking up valuable space. It also has a much higher chance of breaking because it is tread, if you try to push into someone or something it’s alot more likely to stop working than wheels, and if there is a loose screw or something on the field this risk increases alot. There are basically no upsides with a big downside and alot of risk so treads are avoided
They provide no advantages to wheels, and many disadvantages. Turning is slow, breaks often, takes up a lot of space
realistically, i feel like the only game where you would have had an upside in using them would have been tp as they could have been helpful when trying to get to the top of the platforms and you needed to push someone.
Well the lack of maneuverability really put tank treads at a larger disadvantage. We had one team with tank tread last year in TN and they were decent but they just got out drove when it came to collecting and moving around.
Also, I should probably add; I have used tank treads in the past and I am not planning on using them on a competition robot in the future (unless this somehow turns out very well).
If you put the bogies on some custom suspension, I could see tank tracks being very useful for crossing rough terrain while maintaining grip.
Side skirts and special track guards could protect the tracks from impacts. If you have the space or time, you could even have multiple sets of tracks!
You could also attach a wheel to the drive sprocket so that even if the tracks break you can still move
My teammate used tank treads (when he had his own team) in turning point and was the greatest defense bot. He had a massive and insanely torqued arm that could literally rip caps from other bots and pull or push bots on platforms. Since he had treads, he faced very little opposition. He was never pushed, only ever did the pushing. This was using the cortex system too, 4 motor drivetrain, I believe. But he also did use a combination of “sticky tread” so there you go. If you want to play insane defense or just be a full on unit at the expense of speed, go for tank treads.