Vex Wheel
thess510
Entry ID #: 5726
Created: Fri, Dec 21, 2018 4:49 PM
I designed a new wheel with a skid resistant surface to improve traction and to make wheels used to propel objects more powerful. Our robot this year uses wheels to propel balls at the flags. I thought a wheel with a skid resistant (like fine sandpaper) coating would shoot the balls with more power. The new skid resistant wheel would be used in the same location as other wheels, just in a way to improve traction. This wheel conatins the same .25 inch hole for the axle as a standard wheel. I also redesigned the interior of the wheel to be solid plastic with no spokes. I recessed the outside of the wheel and left the inside of the wheel flush with the inner side of the rim. The gritty substence infused in the wheel material would have the consistency of fine sandpaper. That will keep the robot from slipping, increase friction with the floor or objects, and therefore, make those movements more efficient. I used Inventor to create two circles and extruded them. One circle I extruded to be the outside wheel material, and the other I extruded to be the solid, but thinner, interior portion of the wheel. The center square in the middle of the wheel is used to insert the axle through the wheel. I rounded the outside edges of the wheel using the fillet command. To show the nonslip surface of the wheel, I changed the appearance of the wheel to show an anodized, light gray texture using the appearance option under the tools tab. Conclusion: This challenger helped me relearn how to use CAD/Inventor. I also used the fillet option to round the edges of the tire and used the apperance option to change the texture of the outer wheel material. I plan on entering a college engineering or technical field and using 3D design software should help me in either of those fields. This software allows us to create and test design ideas for our robot.