The Effect of Wheel and Drive Types on the Overall Performance of a Robot in Tests of Alignment and Traction

The purpose of this experiment was to determine which base type produced the most efficient robot in tests of alignment and traction. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference between the mean angles of deviation and distances travelled. It was also hypothesized that the robot with the straight drive and combination wheels would have the lowest angle of deviation and farthest distance travelled overall (in meters). The bases were tested for alignment by autonomously driving the bases along a planned path and measuring the angle of deviation from the optimal trajectory in degrees. To test traction, a weighted box was placed in the robot’s path and the robot’s overall distance of forward motion was recorded after a specified number of seconds. Welch’s tests were performed in place of ANOVAs in the absence of equal variances and they revealed a significant difference between the means in the alignment data, F(5, 79.2744)= 106.50, p\u3c0.05, and the traction data, F(5, 78.7050)= 3567.51, p\u3c0.05, supporting the first hypothesis. The bases with the lowest mean angle of deviation were the straight drive bases and the bases with the longest mean distance traveled were the straight driven bases with combination and omnidirectional wheels, partially supporting the second hypothesis. These findings are significant because they suggest that straight drives with combination or omnidirectional wheels are best for performing tasks requiring high linear accuracy and traction. This could influence future robot designs