DEWBOT VIII Wheel Friction Coefficient Testing

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During November and December of 2011, friction coefficient testing was carried out on several different wheel types. These types included 4" HiGrip wheels, 4" Plaction wheels with blue nitrile tread, Rover wheels, Omni wheels, and 8" FIRST wheels with rubber tread.


Procedure


1. Sets of 4 wheels were clamped into the wheel wells of DEWBOT V's frame and fixed in place.

2. The frame, with wheels, was then placed on an inclined carpeted surface along with an angle/pitch measure.

3. The surface's incline was increased gradually until the frame began to slip down the surface, at which point the surface's incline was measured with the angle measure. This was repeated for 3 trials to eliminate error.

4. After the completion of Step 3, a polycarbonate inclined surface was substituted for the carpeted one in order to test the wheels on different types of surfaces.

5. The frame was then rotated 90 degrees and steps 1-4 were repeated with the new orientation.

6. Steps 1-5 were then repeated for each new set of wheels.


Calculations


In order to find the friction coefficients, the tangent of the angle of incline had to be measured for each test. This was done using Microsoft Office Excel. Below is a sample, blank, spreadsheet for these tests:

Wheel Friction Coefficients 1: New Wheels

___________________________Polycarb ______________ Carpet __________________________

Trial 1: Orientation 1

Trial 2: Orientation 1

Trial 3: Orientation 1

Averages

Coefficients

Trial 1: Orientation 2

Trial 2: Orientation 2

Trial 3: Orientation 2

Averages

Coefficients



Results