The Effect of Wheel Type on the Speed of a Mobile Robot

In continuation with the previous year’s experiment, the purpose of this experiment was to determine which base type produced the most efficient robot when tested on their speed. The previous project tested the base types’ performance in alignment and traction. It was found in the previous test that the straight drive bases with omnidirectional wheels or combination wheels performed the best overall in tests of alignment and traction. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference in the mean distances traveled between all bases. It was also hypothesized that the straight drive base with combination wheels would perform with the greatest overall speed. The speed of the base was tested by allowing the bases to autonomously follow a previously delineated path for three seconds and recording the distance traveled in meters. The results were analyzed using a Welch’s test and they revealed a significant difference between the means, F(2, 87)= 414.12, p\u3c0.01, supporting the first hypothesis. It was found that the base with a straight drive and omnidirectional wheels had the highest mean distance traveled, against the second hypothesis. These findings are significant because they suggest that robots with a straight drive and omnidirectional wheels perform the best for tasks requiring high linear accuracy, traction, and speed. The findings of this experiment are relevant because they may influence future robot designs