Just curious. I have seen old German WWII tanks that were tri-track. I’ve even seen one recently somewhere.
What are the advantages of the raised drive wheel over a conventional drive?
I did find this unusual tri-track drive (inverted?) to be interesting:
youtube.com/watch?v=GATTlqZvujc
Alan KM6VV
I would venture a guess that the drive system is able to provide more ground clearance with the driven element raised above the passive ones.
Making all the bottom ‘road wheels’ undriven can simplify suspension design. Lynxmotion TriTracks have no suspension, but raising the drive wheel in this case means easier access to motors. All tracked vehicles balance performance in one area at the expense of other areas.
Flat-tracked vehicles work fine too, and are better in some areas, worse in others.
At the small scale and low speeds and weights of hobby robotics, an artistic configuration can be as important as a functional configuration. We are not constrained by massive payload requirements, or extreme speed and force. We deal with small, light parts, low-power motors, and very pedestrian speeds. We can indulge, and create ungainly contraptions that can be delicately agile.
In short, tri-track works, and looks good. Flat, or trapezoid, or whatever, also works. Adapt it as needed for your individual project.
K
“You are all unique. Just like everyone else.”
thanks for the responses guys.
Alan KM6VV
Google can produce some interesting track designs. For a bot, the WWI trpizoid design might be useful. In the front the track angles up to be able to climb over obsticles. The shape of the rear might be good for traversing down hill or over pits in reverse. It might be useful when decending stairs. There are old videos of tanks rolling head over heels trying to go down a steep slope. The tritrack in the video looka like it might have slack track issues if there isn’t some tensioning mechanism in play. Another variant to that tritrack would be to have front and rear track sets that are driven off of the center track axel. Probably could be easily made/tested using Lynxmotion parts.
