I am a prgrammer who recently got into robotics. As I was going through the plans for my robot I got stuck on what sort of motor (how large of a motor) I need for the project and where to get one. The project I'm working on will weigh around 100 lbs. (This is a larger robot) and will have to side motors each power a drive wheel for a "tank track" system. I want the final revision to be able to move at most around 3 mph countinously and be able to move in all directions (including reverse) So what type of motor should I get and how big of a motor do I need for this sort of project. Thank you greatly.
Motors
There are 2 components to the motor calculation. First is to accelerate the robot to its desired speed. The second is to maintain a constant speed. The torque required to accelerate is typically the larger so that should be the primary consideration. There are torque calculators available online Search for “Coleman Benson at RobotShop” or “Society of Robots”.
You might want to convert from mph to something more useful such as cm/sec or inch/sec.
Torque calculations can be very quite challenging. Feel free to post intermediate results and ask for confirmation. I usually do the calculations and then double or triple them to allow for errors on my part.
Will weight around 100lbs is
Will weight around 100lbs is really vague; even a small motor can tow such load. More useful would be “able to cope with a 20° slope with 100lbs of payload”, or “roam on a flat floor with 100lbs of payload”. In the fist case you need strong motors and friction, in the second just a sturdy base, low friction and average motors.
I guess you can start with considering with hoverboard motors or wheelchair motors, then adding a 10A motor driver.