The gearbox on the robot’s drive base consists of three CIMs. We chose to use three CIMs to provide our robot with enough torque to be able to maneuver over the defenses without getting stuck and to be able to push other robots around on the field.
The three plates, which were milled on a CNC mill, are attached to the CIMs and hold a set of gears. The gearbox is designed to move the robot at 13 feet per second to maneuver around the field quickly. The gearbox was designed for strength, durability, and compactness.
Testing the drivetrain with this gearbox and chain was time consuming. The chains that spin the wheels would occasionally break inside of the drive tube. To fix this problem we had to almost completely take apart the drive tube assembly to fix the chain then put it all back together. This was very time consuming and begged for a solution which was found. We stopped using master links as they are significantly weaker than other chain. Also, we can add a second chain on the exterior of the drive tube to halve the load on each chain if further problems arise.