Frame
When construction your frame, you'll need
1) 2x1s for the base (Qty - 4)
2) Bellypan (Qty - 1)
3) MountingDrivetrain tubesRails (Qty - 1 or 2)
Note - Wall thickness of .100" or thicker = thick wall (good for chassis due to durability and high impact resistance)
Bellypan
- Has small holes in certain areas known as grommet holes to allow for electrical components to mount, and has holes along the perimeter for mounting onto chassis. All bellypans have a cut extrusion pattern along the surface which saves weight and makes it look nice, which is known as pocketing
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- Laser cut by sponsors
- Typically 1/16" to 1/4" in thickness
- Thicker bellypans have smoother driving due to lower center of gravity (CG)
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MountingDrivetrain TubesRails
MountingDrivetrain rails are mounting tubes which are integrated into the frame design for structural support and for mounting separate subsystems like shooters, intakes, climbers, etc.
Design Considerations
- Place battery first when designing drivetrain as it is the heaviest component, so you can take
COMCG into account (important for deciding how smooth your robot can drive) Tungsten sheets are heavy and good for COM, but very expensive (Insert mcmaster carr tungsten sheet price pic)- When designing your drivebase, your main goal should be maximizing
COMCG while maintaining efficient mass to incorporatetoherother subsystems in the future AccelerationTungstenissheetsprioritizedarein games which require lots of change of directionheavy anda needgood foraCG,fastbuttopspeedVERYaccumulationexpensive Tall robots which have a need for speed require heavier drivebases to maintain balanceIf geared too tall, it means it takes too long to reach topspeedRobots geared too high will do better with pushing (kinda like torque) while bots geared for top speed won't (Speed is inverse of torque)

