Hi,
I’m intrigued, and need some help. How to steer wheeled or tracked robots?
I don’t think it’s just on/off one of drive wheels, but also it should be quite easier than hydraulics as in cars.
Maybe I should use linear acutators for steering on front wheels. I would like to have at least a few direction angles, not just 3 positions(front, left and right turn).
Is it important that when you steer a car there are not same angels on front wheels?
This is my first post/thread on this forum, so I’m sorry if there is already similar discussion, or if I made any grammar, language mistakes.
Thank you all
Hello Mr. Benson,
Thank You for your quick answer.
If I understood well, skid steering does the job by giving different amounts of power to wheels at the opposite sides of vechicle(using potentiometers or motor controlers). Does this techinque requires a bit of programing, since it is important to know shall we stop one motor,reduce its speed or increase speed of the other one?
Bike steering, on the other hand, is useful if robot has only one wheel to steer, I think it’s tricky to implement two separate shafts in 4-wheeled vechicle.
Rack and pinion technique(as linear acutator), I have already had in mind, but I’m affraid I don’t undestand how to conect it with drive shaft and wheels. Is it difficult to make?
Since I’m building very simple vechicle for start, I would ask you for more details about skid steering, and was it, what i wrote above, correct?
Thank you
Hi,
Rack and pinion steering is much harder to implement mechanically and does not give the same versatility as skid steering. Two gear motors = skid steering. Vary the speed and direction to have the robot turn slowly, move forward / backward or turn on the spot.
Sincerely,
Hi Koki Kol,
Welcome to the RobotShop Forum. There are two / three main ways to steer a vehicle (aside from any prototoype devices):
Rack and pinion: this is like the steering on your car
Skid: like a tank (can be 2, 4, 6 wheels or treads)
Bike: usually the front wheel pivots
By far the most common in robotics is skid steering since it is incredibly simple to design and implement. If you leave your front wheels free in rack and pinion steering (rear wheel drive) you can get away without having to use a differential.
If you want more than ON/OFF/REVERSE, you will need what’s called a motor controller.
Hope this helps,
