Now the robot has been working fine however I noticed the following issues that bother me:
-The wheels tend to go sideways instead of being straight (perhaps cause of the weight? there’s a 23lbs battery and 2 motherboards with various electronics, maybe total of 30lbs total)
When it turns left or right it sometimes doesnt work very well when the ceramic floor is uneven
I had tried making this robot use 4 of the same motors instead of 2 with 8 of the same wheels instead of 4 but it doesnt turn very well at all left or right when both left motors go right and both right go left (and vice versa).
I also tried bigger tires 4 7/8 of the same company, banebots double wide… but its even worse cause of the bigger tire radius.
So… do I need stronger motors? Better tires? or something else?
the lenght of the robot is 17 inches long by 14 inches wide on a piece of plywood…
Any help would be good as I’m tired of spending money on pieces that don’t improve its performance.
Also I read that the closer the front and rear motors/wheels are the better the turns are, so if I add two more wheels for a total of six it would make all the wheels closer to eachother, would this help with turning?
Even though you purchased supposedly identical motors, no two motors are identical, and as such, even small variations in the manufacturing process means that one will likely turn at a slightly different speed than the other.
If it appears the motors are having issues moving the robot, then yes, they are underpowered (23lbs is intuitively quite heavy for just two of those small motors).
You’ll need to explain more.
This depends very much on the dimensions of the robot. If you place the motors at the front quite far away from the motors at the rear, the robot simply cannot turn. based on the dimensions you describe below, your robot is almost square, which would certainly have issues turning on a ceramic surface. You need to move the wheels closer together while keeping the same width.
You need to change the location of the four motors, and keep in mind that when a 4WD robot turns, there is significant force sideways; forcing rubber sideways against ceramic is not easy.
It’s best to try to move the motors closer together (front to rear). Note that 28lbs is not lightweight, so stick with four motors. You’ll also find that operating the robot on a surface with less friction will work better.
If this does not resolve your issues, can you upload a video of what happens?
Success! I’ve put the motors/wheels closer to eachother (using a total of 4 motors/wheel sets) and the robot turns perfectly on itself even on the ceramic flooring! This was my problem the whoile time, I had the wheels at the end of the platform, now they are towards the middle enough to keep it balanced!
