Crazy idea for battle bot. Can it work?

[edgecase]

Hello all. This is my first post here. I have an idea for a battle bot design and I'd like a reality check on it's theoretical operating principles. Forget the design/engineering aspect for now. I'm aware there will be some major hurdles there! But does the physics check out?

See the attached sketch. The concept is to manipulate coaxial movement and torque to control movement of the robot. The weapon is essentially a fly wheel, and part of the coaxial system.

1. The large wheels move freely on the axle.
2. The weapon spins CW
3. Total mass of the two counter-torque discs equals mass of the weapon
4. CT discs spin CCW
5. Forward/reverse movement is controlled by speeding up or slowing down the CW discs relative to the weapon. WOULD THIS WORK? I feel like it would cause the robot to "drift" forward or backwards.
6. Turning movement is controlled by slowing down either of the CT discs. The this would result in a (gyroscope?) force rotating the system on it's vertical axis (kind of like a coaxial helicopter).

As I write this out, I'm more doubtful it will work :) But tell me what you think. If it doesn't work as I hope it will, I also have some ideas for using physical slip-clutches to transmit motion (activated by a servo or something).

 

[Flyboy]

I don’t think your proposed drive system will work. You will need some sort of clutch/freewheel system to transfer the differential rotation from the core systems to the main wheels.

Second, those enormous wheels are going to be damage magnets. My concern is that they would not withstand much damage before failing and immobilizing your bot and its weapon.

 

[edgecase]

Thanks. I agree about the clutch. In terms of how effective this would be as a robot, I haven't completely thought through all the pros and cons, other than it would be un-flippable and it's sensitive bits would be up high and protected by the wheels from two sides and the weapon from the other two sides. Also the weapon could be designed to hammer down or flip up the opponent, depending on how you approachthem.

The wheels could be pretty beefy depending on the weight class and what kind of power to weight ratio I could come up with to drive them.

It could be all around a terrible idea, but an interesting thought experiment. :)

 

[Ryoko]

You would need a high angular moment of inertia in your CT disks which is going to cause weight issues. The disks would also be subject to reaction wheel "saturation" if you tried to move while blocked resulting in a loss of control. The tall wheels are also very vulnerable to bending/breakage.