You two should work together on a Version 2 of Colin's Riono Tank and use the best of both to make something that's unstoppable, also maybe get a more powerful motor like a little diesel engine that has a load of torque.
Have either of you guys considered an ArcDroid for your shop yet? I bet they would sponsor you in a heartbeat! Great units, and can expand your shop's capabilities a lot. You're welcome. 😉
He's the quiet genius behind the operation... And Colin is the mad scientist blowing shit up :D (in the absolute best way possible) I want to see more collabs! James making a robotic version of the flying bike?! Or a 3-D printed knife skirt??!
Jame's 3D printer, filament, and bearings sponsors are the only kind of RUclips sponsorships I don't skip, he's actually using their products in all his projects and the ad reads are short and succinct!
There are other channels which do similar things. For one I'll mention Blondihacks, some of her tools are given to her, but we see her use them and even abuse them from time to time.
@@teresashinkansen9402 that's a lot of juice lol We did a couple Bitcoin mining setups. Normal home service (in the US, 200a service) can provide power sufficient for roughly 25 antminer S9s (which I'm sure are likely ancient by now, we did this a few years ago, and that stuff progresses fast) but 25 was the limit for continuous use in a safe manner. Just for a fun side note about the power requirements.
You two together give me some Jamie and Adam vibes. You guys need to collab on some engineering monstrosity now! Pull some ideas out of a hat, a big animatronic steel head
I guess one problem is, that on the wheels, even when spread out, you have a lot of ground pressure on the "bars". Only one bar at a time is touching the ground. I'd try some kind of net or fixed track in between those bars. Like on some tractors, designed for low pressure on the ground.
I agree with your observation, but not how to address it. Even simple 'teeth' added to the wheel webs/struts to all but the non-cambered driving edges would work wonders. What might happen with webbing is the web actually exacerbating the slip by getting caught in the surface it runs on. On smooth asphalt/concrete, I could see it adding traction. On soil, it could snag very easily.
I remember James starting out, his channel really shows how as you gain experince by trying and failing, your skills develope quickly. I often notice him now almost skipping over parts of the project as though they are to "simple" to be worth mentioning, that in a past project he struggles to undersand and get it working. James understanding of kinematics is a good example of this, it consistently developed over the years with each project untill it has become another tool in his belt.
Incredible Robot Wars vibes from some of this, especially the ditch bits where the availability of a 14-year-old who could remember to invert the controls when reversing might have saved the day.
Dome the wheels and fill in the hollow space with spray foam insulation. It'll add byuoancy, there'll be no empty void that'll fill with water in need of draining, and prevent the paddles from digging down into the water and mud.
The circumference of your wheels is different across the width of the tyre, effectively giving a different circumferential speed across the tyre's width. So you automatically lose any static friction and the faster- and slower-moving parts of the circumference will be pushing against each other. There won't be any linear propulsion from a completely submerged wheel unless it is on the bottom. It's beautiful 😃
I would like a video where you try to iterate upon this design and improve it. You could: -Add steering -Put a limiter on the roll -Space the front and back a little further apart so the wheels don't hit each other on a tight turn -Add some buoyancy so it can work like a paddle boat (but don't forget to distribute the weight properly so it doesn't tip) -Anything else a civilian such as my self didn't think of
As proof of concept that’s brilliant. Some steering authority and waterproofing (splashing will always be a risk) and that would be a workable solution.
I always enjoy it when you're with other content creators. That look you gave Colin while in the water towards the end reminded me of starting the pulse jet all those years ago. I know how hard it must be for the stars to align to film this sort of episode but they are worth the wait. One of these a year is an absolute treat :)
My suggestion would be to fill the wheels like Collin did, but slightly deeper and using a mesh instead of a solid plate. Setting them sunk in a bit more will keep the grip your getting from the edging, but also add in some extra in the softer mud without the wheels basically tuning into shovels. And using the mesh keeps them from filling with water and reduces the weight.
Let's just appreciate that Colin could have just hidden in his tunnels and ignored James or he could have just done the typical RUclipsr half-arsed cross promotion but instead he went out into the cold, muddy fields with James and did all the unglamourous behind the camera work without taking over the video. Legend.
Keep in mind this "Rhino" is only model size! If it was big enough to house a driver, it could effectively take on rocks (and water depth) 2-4 times bigger. Think of it this way: A normal curb is about the height you can expect a normal car to drive up. But a small RC car obviously can't do it. Whereas a huge minig truck can easily go over a much larger boulder. So it's not really a fair comparison when you give the same challenge to two "Rhinos" of different size. With active steering and full-size, I reckon it would do splendidly!
Lovely team-up and the unit worked well. First time full success is hard to come by! We'd all be kicking ourselves - why didn't I follow through with the idea to put in some kind of mid-pivot steering! But hey, ver 1.1 ! Nice work.
James, this project was one of the best exercises in experimental locomotion I've seen you do. I'm sure you learned a great deal, especially after comparing this scaled version to Colin's Rhino. Well done!
With slightly better controlled steering and a little more weight to give bite, I reckon you have a pretty good design. Big ups for having Colin come to give an assessment, calling on the king of badgers to review your work is the mark of success
Honestly, it did a LOT better than Colin's version. Your issues were mostly around that articulated link in the middle, it really needed to be powered in the yaw axis so you're not just relying on tank-steering, and angle-limited in the roll axis to maybe 15-20 degrees. As a first effort (well, first improvement on Colin's design) it's really impressive, but would need more iteration to actually be useful.
Besides the active steering, I'd think that adding some serrated metal edging to the wheels would help with grip. The rubber strips protect the plywood edging, but actually reduce grip on slippery surfaces. I envision the rubber strips staying there, and the serrated edges hanging over them.
Seems to me it would be much more effective with the dish of the wheels facing inside instead of out, to ensure a wider track and more stability. Especially as camber is added, it would lower the frame instead of raising it. But also controlled steer angle looks to be needed. Looking forward to version 2!
JCB you say... James & Colin Build! (new channel, you get together, design something awesome, he builds the frames and metal bits, you 3d print and code everything else...) this would be the greatest maker channel
Now for a part three they should build one together, James's robotics know how and Colin's metal fab skills. Make a rideable one with the best chance of working!
Just a tip, you should bubble fillet the ends of your pockets/slots so that when you slide square boards into them you don't have to deal with the tool radiused corners interfering with the square corners of the board. Just makes things fit together much more easily
Awesome content. But bad choise of filament, if it is needed for torque/weight/stress. I'd never trust PLA, pro or not for that. Needs to be harder stuff like ptfe, abs+, carbon-mixed and a few others. But then again, PLA pro will do for short lifetime projects.
21:00 One thing that might solve some issues - independently adjusting the angle of the wheels. It looks as though your wheels adjust the splay in pairs; being able to change only the one wheel - such as the wheel stuck against the bank - might have helped you.
Interesting. I think at many time the out camber was out too far, especially in the water and mud, turning the wheel into a mixer instead of a traction wheel.
Colin had a good thought about powering the articulation joint. I'm not sure why it even has it because a skid steer does not articulate. It may help in extreme situations releasing the machine from being stuck but not during normal driving. The controls seem to need some kind of logic behind them. Manually running all the motors looks a little like flying a quadcopter manually.
Is weight not an issue too? Weight to torque (power), it looks quite lightweight even though there is steel involved in the construction. Limiting the steering seemed to improve it slightly but I think active steering would improve it further. Also studs to improve grip maybe beneficial. Just throwing a few grey cells in there. Nice illuminating snowman in one shot.
Limiting the slip *electronically* rather than mechanically should be relatively easy by adding intelligent servo control to the motor supplies. If you can't sense through the motor proper, via the drive module, then you can add an external loop(s) and simple sensors externally that then interrupt/modulate your motor feeds. Mechanically, some sharper edges on the curved part of the wheel struts would be very simple to add.
The background music is exceedingly ingenious and well-done. Deh- deh- deeeh, de de ne neh- neh- puh, tch; puh, tch; puh-tch Deh- deh- deeeh, de de ne neh- neh
I think this is a hugely promising concept. What looked very obvious to me 1) The vehicle is too narrow for the wheel radius. With the wheels at full camber, the wheels almost touched in the middle underneath so it was almost riding on a hemisphere; no wonder it was quite happy to roll over. 2) Having each wheel as a hemisphere is the wrong geometry. The radius of curvature of the blade ends should be more than the radius of the wheel. So you'll end up with a truncated gherkin sort of shape. That way as the vehicle tips, the track gets wider & more stable. "Paddle wheel mode" as you said. 3) Active steering. I think you already decided that. Retain the differential wheel speed tho.
shape wise the convex shape if anything causes a loss of grip on harder ground, it has to sink in to grip, perhaps make something like a frame that is designed to flex and crumple by a small amount to maximise contact, like letting the air out of tyres to increase grip
Super cool. I think American 4x4 truck tires would be a good fix for the terrain; considering lots of vehicles get stuck in the wet English mud. They always put studs or chains around them especially in the winter if its deep enough freezing for the area. I think the loss of grip is mostly a tire tread issue.
If front and rear wheels were separately controlled that would fix a lot of the control issues. You do need it to oversteer in some of those positions, which won't happen if front wheel loses grip. In software considering you have a hall sensor, on each motor, you can program the steering (i.e. left right balance) to take into account if front and back wheels are spinning at different speeds and make a differential in software this way. Should be easy to program and test it. It could also fix the stability issue when you want to go straight. Though to account for slipping you will need some hinge sensor as well.
for whatever reason, i find myself falling asleep while trying to learn about robotics, i guess i dont know enough for any of it to make sense to me, james reminds me of the genius teacher in school that i dont understand his lessons because hes too smart so i end up falling asleep
Like other have said love to see more colabrations between these two. one is angle grinders and sledge hammers, and the other is 3D printers and soldering iorn. Its great fun seeing them togather and i bet they could build an awsome project. Remeber Colin building that huge AT-AT, now think about James getting to do the robotics on it..... We all want to see that don't we?!
I reckon some sort of texture on the wheel would improve the grip significantly, at time the wheels don't seem to be gripping to anything. Perhaps a bunch of tiny spikes could also do the job.
I think I agree with Colin - you needed a way to actively control the orientation between the fore and aft. 4WD works on a truck because the angle of the wheels to each other is actively controlled. And I do think that making the wheel "domes" solid might have given better traction as well. Thought arguably the biggest problem there was not enough mass to create enough down-force. It looked a lot like driving an empty pickup or van on the snow - too much power, not enough mass.
I feel like the problem with the slip is the ridged wheels built in between the paddles for support..... Unless you have thick really soft mud, the support wheels/struts stop the wheel from sinking in and getting the 'more grip' thats whole purpose. Most of the time when youre stuck with a wheel spinning its not sinking in for grip
100% needed powered steering, i think with that alone it would be a different tank, i bet even Nasa would be looking at your concept, love that you can rotate the wheels out if more grip is needed
Ity's great to see some ones else's interpretation of this concept, i'm sure between the 2 theres a semi functial vehicle, well done James.
Thanks for helping out with the video and testing!
You two should work together on a Version 2 of Colin's Riono Tank and use the best of both to make something that's unstoppable, also maybe get a more powerful motor like a little diesel engine that has a load of torque.
Isn't it a requirement to have wheels that float?
Have either of you guys considered an ArcDroid for your shop yet? I bet they would sponsor you in a heartbeat! Great units, and can expand your shop's capabilities a lot. You're welcome. 😉
Thanks for participating in the video!
"I have learned from your mistakes Colin and repeated them exactly" had me laughing, love these two together.
like a peanut butter hamburger helper sandwich
when did he say that? I can't find
@@FMFvideos 17:39
This video has so much englishman in a shed showing off his latest toy to another shed living englishman energy, and I love it.
pretty good summary of all British engineering really :D
in the words of James May : "blokes mucking about in sheds is what made this country great"
@@eTiMaGoincluding HMS Dreadnought 1906?
But i thought Colin lived in a house shaped Country tea storage facility and only WORKS in a Shed...
In terms of aesthetics, Colin's is "Mad Max battlefield robust", whereas James's is more of a slimmed down "planetary explorer" vibe.
which kinda syncs with their personalities too :D
People build their personalities@@eTiMaGo
@@Z0ctB0x everything I build is an unstable mess, that makes sense 😂
@@eTiMaGo LOL
He's the quiet genius behind the operation... And Colin is the mad scientist blowing shit up :D
(in the absolute best way possible)
I want to see more collabs!
James making a robotic version of the flying bike?!
Or a 3-D printed knife skirt??!
The rust and weathering on the Rhino has only gone and increased it's awesomeness. 👌
Jame's 3D printer, filament, and bearings sponsors are the only kind of RUclips sponsorships I don't skip, he's actually using their products in all his projects and the ad reads are short and succinct!
Thats because they arent ads, its just him mentioning his affiliate link
And we actually get to see the products at work!
There are other channels which do similar things. For one I'll mention Blondihacks, some of her tools are given to her, but we see her use them and even abuse them from time to time.
I heard he uses up about 5% of the worlds filament, also he had to have installed his personal substation to power all the 3D printers.
@@teresashinkansen9402 that's a lot of juice lol
We did a couple Bitcoin mining setups. Normal home service (in the US, 200a service) can provide power sufficient for roughly 25 antminer S9s (which I'm sure are likely ancient by now, we did this a few years ago, and that stuff progresses fast) but 25 was the limit for continuous use in a safe manner. Just for a fun side note about the power requirements.
Got all nervous watching those expensive electronics going into the bog! Still really cool project and always great to see you two collabing.
James + Colin = brilliant dream team. SO SATISFIED!!!!!!!
You two together give me some Jamie and Adam vibes.
You guys need to collab on some engineering monstrosity now! Pull some ideas out of a hat, a big animatronic steel head
Jamie and Adam ended up basically hating eachother. They never really got along
Why stop at the head? They should go full gundam!
They already did a colab. Check out the Ironman suit on Colin's channel and there is a video on burtons about his contribution.
@@CalebHansonlets Not hating each other. They respect each other professionally but are not friends
@@MrRedstonerWas just gonna say that was a bit sensationalistic.
Such a power coupling. Even if it was a "failure" it's still fun seeing you two work together.
I guess one problem is, that on the wheels, even when spread out, you have a lot of ground pressure on the "bars". Only one bar at a time is touching the ground. I'd try some kind of net or fixed track in between those bars. Like on some tractors, designed for low pressure on the ground.
dont tanks have tracks not wheels?
@@geesehoward700Yes. I don't talk about putting tracks covering the distance between the wheels, I mean the track covering the big gaps ON the wheel.
Could also put something inflatable in the gaps, like rubber bladders with about 10psi in them.
@@poopbutt238True, but they'd also need grip on the outside. So putting a net all around each wheel would make sense.
I agree with your observation, but not how to address it. Even simple 'teeth' added to the wheel webs/struts to all but the non-cambered driving edges would work wonders. What might happen with webbing is the web actually exacerbating the slip by getting caught in the surface it runs on. On smooth asphalt/concrete, I could see it adding traction. On soil, it could snag very easily.
The most impressive thing about James's work is that all of his 3D printed and CNC'd parts fit together so well
"Upgrade: Old bugs out, new bugs in".
This is definitely an upgrade over Colin's :D
"I've learned from your mistakes Colin and repeated them exactly!" 😂
I love how low-key the last quarter of this is. Two inventors having fun with their inventions in a muddy ravine.
I like that James is so experienced that he can make devices like this relatively quickly
I remember James starting out, his channel really shows how as you gain experince by trying and failing, your skills develope quickly. I often notice him now almost skipping over parts of the project as though they are to "simple" to be worth mentioning, that in a past project he struggles to undersand and get it working. James understanding of kinematics is a good example of this, it consistently developed over the years with each project untill it has become another tool in his belt.
I usually watch these videos because of the relaxing nature but this one had me on the edge of my seat!
Furze music, too? 🤘
Teeth on the edges
I like seeing two makers with different skill sets try to make the same or similar things. This scratched that itch wonderfully.
Incredible Robot Wars vibes from some of this, especially the ditch bits where the availability of a 14-year-old who could remember to invert the controls when reversing might have saved the day.
Dome the wheels and fill in the hollow space with spray foam insulation. It'll add byuoancy, there'll be no empty void that'll fill with water in need of draining, and prevent the paddles from digging down into the water and mud.
Pretty soon we’ll loop back around to inflatable rubber tires 😂
+1 I thought the whole idea was to use the wheels as floats.
The circumference of your wheels is different across the width of the tyre, effectively giving a different circumferential speed across the tyre's width. So you automatically lose any static friction and the faster- and slower-moving parts of the circumference will be pushing against each other.
There won't be any linear propulsion from a completely submerged wheel unless it is on the bottom.
It's beautiful 😃
I would like a video where you try to iterate upon this design and improve it. You could:
-Add steering
-Put a limiter on the roll
-Space the front and back a little further apart so the wheels don't hit each other on a tight turn
-Add some buoyancy so it can work like a paddle boat (but don't forget to distribute the weight properly so it doesn't tip)
-Anything else a civilian such as my self didn't think of
Some filler in the wheels to spread out ground pressure would be helpful in the mud and grass,
@@goosenotmaverick1156Even better if that filler is a highly buoyant material; perhaps some sort of foam.
Oh and you should lower the cg and make it heavier that should help with the slippage some
As proof of concept that’s brilliant. Some steering authority and waterproofing (splashing will always be a risk) and that would be a workable solution.
I like Collin's playground: he has a casual swing and a humongous anti-gravity machine
the design work involved..superb! well done on your continued excellent projects
I always enjoy it when you're with other content creators. That look you gave Colin while in the water towards the end reminded me of starting the pulse jet all those years ago. I know how hard it must be for the stars to align to film this sort of episode but they are worth the wait. One of these a year is an absolute treat :)
Very clever and I hope you and Colin had a fun day! ⭐👍
My suggestion would be to fill the wheels like Collin did, but slightly deeper and using a mesh instead of a solid plate.
Setting them sunk in a bit more will keep the grip your getting from the edging, but also add in some extra in the softer mud without the wheels basically tuning into shovels.
And using the mesh keeps them from filling with water and reduces the weight.
This is the most James Bruton Colin Furze project ever!!
Or is it the most Colin Furze James Bruton project?
The linear actuating camber is inspired 😊
Let's just appreciate that Colin could have just hidden in his tunnels and ignored James or he could have just done the typical RUclipsr half-arsed cross promotion but instead he went out into the cold, muddy fields with James and did all the unglamourous behind the camera work without taking over the video. Legend.
Keep in mind this "Rhino" is only model size! If it was big enough to house a driver, it could effectively take on rocks (and water depth) 2-4 times bigger.
Think of it this way: A normal curb is about the height you can expect a normal car to drive up. But a small RC car obviously can't do it. Whereas a huge minig truck can easily go over a much larger boulder.
So it's not really a fair comparison when you give the same challenge to two "Rhinos" of different size. With active steering and full-size, I reckon it would do splendidly!
Lovely team-up and the unit worked well. First time full success is hard to come by! We'd all be kicking ourselves - why didn't I follow through with the idea to put in some kind of mid-pivot steering! But hey, ver 1.1 ! Nice work.
I'd love to see this run with an actuator for steering. I feel like that was it's biggest weakness
I think more weigh would have helped with the slipping issue. Without the weight to dive it into the mud it can't get the extra traction.
Pretty cool. Nearly got stuck there at the end!
Good work dude
James, this project was one of the best exercises in experimental locomotion I've seen you do. I'm sure you learned a great deal, especially after comparing this scaled version to Colin's Rhino. Well done!
I know you probably get this all the time, but I am envious of your genius. Oh, a rhyme in one line!
The music was a nice touch!
you and Colin need to do some more collabs. You guys are awesome!!
With slightly better controlled steering and a little more weight to give bite, I reckon you have a pretty good design.
Big ups for having Colin come to give an assessment, calling on the king of badgers to review your work is the mark of success
I love colin, he always seems so willing to help people.
Great video and project as alwys!! Thank you James:)
Oh man! You guys should collab more!! This was very fun!
Floatation and steering and hurry out. Good job, I like it!😊
Honestly, it did a LOT better than Colin's version. Your issues were mostly around that articulated link in the middle, it really needed to be powered in the yaw axis so you're not just relying on tank-steering, and angle-limited in the roll axis to maybe 15-20 degrees.
As a first effort (well, first improvement on Colin's design) it's really impressive, but would need more iteration to actually be useful.
Besides the active steering, I'd think that adding some serrated metal edging to the wheels would help with grip. The rubber strips protect the plywood edging, but actually reduce grip on slippery surfaces. I envision the rubber strips staying there, and the serrated edges hanging over them.
Love to see it again with an active steering mecanism! I'm sure it will be amazing.
Steering and waterproofing. I would really like to see another collaboration making a revised version with lessons learned.
Seems to me it would be much more effective with the dish of the wheels facing inside instead of out, to ensure a wider track and more stability.
Especially as camber is added, it would lower the frame instead of raising it.
But also controlled steer angle looks to be needed.
Looking forward to version 2!
I love your colaborations with colin
It would be really cool to make it buoyant and see how well it drives on water, like an amphibious vehicle!
There is a reason the original vehicle had closed dome wheels and not open ones. The wheels will just fill up with mud and make them slick 😁.
The biggest fails with the domed wheels design is that they have almost no grip.
JCB you say... James & Colin Build! (new channel, you get together, design something awesome, he builds the frames and metal bits, you 3d print and code everything else...) this would be the greatest maker channel
Testing at the Lamb & Furze proving grounds , love it , thanks JB
Now for a part three they should build one together, James's robotics know how and Colin's metal fab skills. Make a rideable one with the best chance of working!
Love your video. This is awesome
Just a tip, you should bubble fillet the ends of your pockets/slots so that when you slide square boards into them you don't have to deal with the tool radiused corners interfering with the square corners of the board.
Just makes things fit together much more easily
Awesome content. But bad choise of filament, if it is needed for torque/weight/stress. I'd never trust PLA, pro or not for that.
Needs to be harder stuff like ptfe, abs+, carbon-mixed and a few others. But then again, PLA pro will do for short lifetime projects.
Really fun watching the two of them together, plus some real nail-biting footage there! Will it make it? Will it drown? OH NO! Oh, whew...
In relation to its smaller size, all those obstacles were massive! I think it did remarkably well. 👍
Colin's tank looks so cool with all this rust! 🙂
1:50 The wood grain shows through the chrome paint so well that I struggle to convince my eyes that it's not just selective black and white footage 😂
I have to say Colins Rino is just Epic - that thing fitted with linear actuators and remote would be a proper upgrade
still not great, but better. I'd reduce the gears even more, add active steering, and maybe make the ridges sharper so it digs in more.
that looks great! hopefully this convinces more people to make tanks like this
I'd like to see this project revisited with power steering.
21:00 One thing that might solve some issues - independently adjusting the angle of the wheels. It looks as though your wheels adjust the splay in pairs; being able to change only the one wheel - such as the wheel stuck against the bank - might have helped you.
Fantastic video!
The background music for the build in this video is definitely the type of music for a bank heist set up. It really brings the whole video together
Would the design excel in deep sand? Could it climb dunes?
Colin is just objectively a great guy and i love it!
Interesting. I think at many time the out camber was out too far, especially in the water and mud, turning the wheel into a mixer instead of a traction wheel.
I would say that’s a result! It honestly faired way better than I expected
needs a diff lock lol. great Job James.
This looked like phenomenally good fun!
VERY cool to see your take on a similar design.
Colin had a good thought about powering the articulation joint. I'm not sure why it even has it because a skid steer does not articulate. It may help in extreme situations releasing the machine from being stuck but not during normal driving. The controls seem to need some kind of logic behind them. Manually running all the motors looks a little like flying a quadcopter manually.
Is weight not an issue too? Weight to torque (power), it looks quite lightweight even though there is steel involved in the construction.
Limiting the steering seemed to improve it slightly but I think active steering would improve it further. Also studs to improve grip maybe beneficial.
Just throwing a few grey cells in there. Nice illuminating snowman in one shot.
Limiting the slip *electronically* rather than mechanically should be relatively easy by adding intelligent servo control to the motor supplies. If you can't sense through the motor proper, via the drive module, then you can add an external loop(s) and simple sensors externally that then interrupt/modulate your motor feeds.
Mechanically, some sharper edges on the curved part of the wheel struts would be very simple to add.
Coolest collab in the RUclips maker community!
The background music is exceedingly ingenious and well-done.
Deh- deh- deeeh, de de ne neh- neh-
puh, tch; puh, tch; puh-tch
Deh- deh- deeeh, de de ne neh- neh
Love the Colin Furze-esque music choices!
I think this is a hugely promising concept. What looked very obvious to me
1) The vehicle is too narrow for the wheel radius. With the wheels at full camber, the wheels almost touched in the middle underneath so it was almost riding on a hemisphere; no wonder it was quite happy to roll over.
2) Having each wheel as a hemisphere is the wrong geometry. The radius of curvature of the blade ends should be more than the radius of the wheel. So you'll end up with a truncated gherkin sort of shape. That way as the vehicle tips, the track gets wider & more stable. "Paddle wheel mode" as you said.
3) Active steering. I think you already decided that. Retain the differential wheel speed tho.
shape wise the convex shape if anything causes a loss of grip on harder ground, it has to sink in to grip, perhaps make something like a frame that is designed to flex and crumple by a small amount to maximise contact, like letting the air out of tyres to increase grip
Super cool.
I think American 4x4 truck tires would be a good fix for the terrain; considering lots of vehicles get stuck in the wet English mud. They always put studs or chains around them especially in the winter if its deep enough freezing for the area. I think the loss of grip is mostly a tire tread issue.
If front and rear wheels were separately controlled that would fix a lot of the control issues. You do need it to oversteer in some of those positions, which won't happen if front wheel loses grip.
In software considering you have a hall sensor, on each motor, you can program the steering (i.e. left right balance) to take into account if front and back wheels are spinning at different speeds and make a differential in software this way. Should be easy to program and test it. It could also fix the stability issue when you want to go straight. Though to account for slipping you will need some hinge sensor as well.
for whatever reason, i find myself falling asleep while trying to learn about robotics, i guess i dont know enough for any of it to make sense to me, james reminds me of the genius teacher in school that i dont understand his lessons because hes too smart so i end up falling asleep
when it in rhino mode, the hole in the beam make a little sad face xD
Like other have said love to see more colabrations between these two. one is angle grinders and sledge hammers, and the other is 3D printers and soldering iorn. Its great fun seeing them togather and i bet they could build an awsome project. Remeber Colin building that huge AT-AT, now think about James getting to do the robotics on it..... We all want to see that don't we?!
I reckon some sort of texture on the wheel would improve the grip significantly, at time the wheels don't seem to be gripping to anything. Perhaps a bunch of tiny spikes could also do the job.
nice to see that Colin showed up !!i I deprecate that. good luck on the project
Awesome build bud - and nobody was injured! :D
What an awesome collab. You'd make a great team.
Great video! You can see that theres some potential here with a some revisions. I think you 2 really compliment each other
Cool to see this collab you deserve the notoriety James, one of the most productive makers in RUclips and some of the most well made videos.
I think I agree with Colin - you needed a way to actively control the orientation between the fore and aft. 4WD works on a truck because the angle of the wheels to each other is actively controlled.
And I do think that making the wheel "domes" solid might have given better traction as well. Thought arguably the biggest problem there was not enough mass to create enough down-force. It looked a lot like driving an empty pickup or van on the snow - too much power, not enough mass.
I feel like the problem with the slip is the ridged wheels built in between the paddles for support..... Unless you have thick really soft mud, the support wheels/struts stop the wheel from sinking in and getting the 'more grip' thats whole purpose. Most of the time when youre stuck with a wheel spinning its not sinking in for grip
100% needed powered steering, i think with that alone it would be a different tank, i bet even Nasa would be looking at your concept, love that you can rotate the wheels out if more grip is needed