What Wheels Should My Robot Use?

Let's Make Robots Tutorials
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@Bob Fitzjohn Yes.

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Hi there, great tutorial. I am planning to make a beach cleaning robot with a payload of 15kg. What sort of wheel (material and diameter) do I need? Cheers!

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@Sridhar Thiagarajan Sand adds a level of complexity since it easily moves. Take a look at existing vehicles which move on sand - large and wide wheels with deep tread are best, but little can beat tracks. For example a commercial robotic beach cleaner: goo.gl/yzbTcM

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Hi Coleman Benson,
I am designing the wheels for a robot that crawl through a metal pipe,Can you suggest some tips on the geometry of area of contact.

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@Vipin VG Suggest creating a new topic on the RobotShop Forum with details of the environment / application (photos / dimensions etc). Will there be bends in the pipe? A T-intersection? The more info you can provide, the better we can help.

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Hi Dear Coleman Benson,
My name is Ferdi Caner Bayram and currently I have been trying to design a tri-star wheel for my robot in order to climb a 25 cm obstacle. But I cannot do the necessary calculations to design it. The thing that I am challenging is to decide the radius of wheel and the radius of tri-star wheel. Do you have any suggestions for that ? Any website that could help me ?

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@Ferdi Caner BAYRAM Unfortunately not. Very little experience with those calculations. A quick online search does not seem to give much information. You can create a new topic on the RobotShop Forum to see if the community can provide some insight.

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I would like to build a robot like the mars curosity rover with the arduino board from the mbot. But I am confused if I should use 12V DC motor or Continuous Rotation Servos? I have the design on the robot, but unsure of the diameter of the wheel required. I have seen the link to the driver motor sizing tool. Please do advice.

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@Nisha We see you have many questions - we propose you create a new topic on the RobotShop Forum with all of your questions and what you would like to create and we would be happy to answer there.

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i want to make a robot which can mive on stair please tell me which type of whells we need to use

51

@rohit It’s actually incredibly hard for a wheeled robot to climb stairs. Successful designs have relied on additional mechanical structures to raise / lower each wheel (Mars Rover-esque). You might prefer a “brute force” appraoch of using tracks, or a heavily modified large wheel with “legs” to reach above each step.

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If i want to make robot tank, what type of wheel i must to use??

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@gigih You would likely need “sprockets” which mesh with specific tracks. There are also some tracks (a lot harder to find) which wrap around normal wheels and use friction.

54

Sir, what type of tyres to use if conducting a tug of war on road made of coal tar or cement

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@Kartik - This will be totally up to you since the wight / size of your robot will have huge impact.

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@Kartik You might consider rubber tank tracks for the most contact area.

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Thanks for this useful information. what type of wheel should be used for a 4 wheels mobile robot on steel mesh floor? Thanks

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@Mohamed It depends on the gap in the floor. For a smoother ride, something wrapped in rubber, but not air filled should be good. Note however that a four wheel robot pushes on the surface from the side, so if you choose a soft wheel, it might get “chewed up”. You might want to consider a 2WD + caster design.

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I am building an obstacle avoiding car. It will have one caster and two rear wheels? What wheels should I use?

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@Napster The choice of wheel depends on the size and weight of the robot, and the surfaces it will move on. Feel free to start a new topic on the RobotShop Forum with details so we can help you make a selection.