After some testing (read repeatedly trying to make it do the minimal maze!) we’ve realised that the chassis is very stiff. This means that usually only 3 wheels are touching the ground, which means our turns (and, ahem, straight lines – Shaun) are more variable than they should be.
Solution is to saw the chassis in half 🙂 We’ve separated front and back into separate sections and joined them with a hinge so that the front and back can twist slightly compared to the other end. We’ve added limiters to ensure that it only twists up to 10 degrees of movement so that the obstacle course doesn’t break the robot!
Here’s the print in progress:
And with the rest of the robot installed into it:
Initial testing indicates that the new twisty chassis works better, so that makes me feel much better about totally rebuilding the robot just 2 weeks before the event!