AutoDesk Inventor

So this long weekend I spend using AutoDesk Inventor (similar to pro/Engineer) building the chassis of our six wheeled skid-steered Vex Robot. The basis behind the omni-wheels in the back is that they reduce friction on horizontal motion. This reduced friction moves the turning radius from the center more towards the front. This is extremely desirable for the competition because we pick up cubes and deliver them near the front of the robot. This allows us to turn about the grabber moving our back out of obstacles and making smaller adjustments where it matters, in the front of our robot. The VEX robot chassis uses chains to ensure that each wheel moves at the same speed, and each side moves at a constant rate. Using encoders, which count 90 times the number of revolutions, a PID can be implemented (well a P due to lack of calculus) which equates the speed side, even though the amount of voltage being passed to the motor is different. This creates straight driving (though is quite hard to test). Both the programming aspects and the physical aspects of the robot have been well tested, but unfortunately holonomic drive has been scrapped.

Thanks for reading,
Mark.