This is new at Robo’Lyon: we create two-speed gearboxes! The goal? Have the best torque/speed ratio!
To put it simply, when we want the robot to cross the game field quickly we need power to accelerate and reach a high speed. On the contrary, during a confrontation with another robot, we need little speed but a lot of force, i.e. a strong torque, to be able to push it back.
Our new improved gearbox automatically chooses either position 1 (in blue) when high torque and low speed is required, or position 2 (in red) when we need speed without necessarily a high torque.
This is a great step forward for the team which, we hope, will allow us to achieve great performances!
We’ve already introduced you to the Made in Robo’Lyon gearbox. It works fine !
Unfortunately, while testing it, we made a programming error. The torque our programmers put on the code was too high and the gearbox prototype broke.
So, we’re going to have to make a new one !
The Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene is a very resistant plastic which hardly breaks, it is a rather soft material with very interesting specificities for the manufacture of our robot (flexible, solid, light…). PTFE has become a vital tool for the team!
So, a few days ago, we tested our gearboxes in real size. But, as we explained in a previous post, the wooden plates broke under the power of the gearboxes. So we machined the same parts but this time in PTFE and they obviously resisted! This is unfortunatly not the case of the aluminum gears that broke under the power of our motors!
This is the second year that Robo’Lyon uses PTFE, it’s a real breakthrough in the team’s history.
We told you earlier about our “overpowered” gearboxes, and how our aluminum gears couldn’t keep up… These little problems are behind us now because we’ve just received steel gears!
It’s INCREDIBLE, the first tests are very conclusive!