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TAURUS ROBOT

note: this page is a place holder until a better tutorial is written

The Original Taurus
Taurus was my very first robot, named so as it was planned to follow anything the color red. But being my first robot, built in early 2002 as a sophomore, it was an absolute failure. And so a year later, in late 2003, I decided to redo it - knowing everything I learned from building several other robots in between.

Enjoy the video!

Mistakes Made in the Original (learn from my mistakes!)
Size Matters - Taurus was too big. The problems I had exponentially increased with the size. Forces were greater, as well as the price of everything. I limited T2 to about the size of a shoebox.

Friction - Treads were bad. Friction aused way too much torque in the system. Bye-bye treads, hello large synchronous high traction wheels.

Chains, Gears - Bad. Very bad. The main reason for failure. I refuse to use them again. Ever. Its very difficult to get everything to mesh properly, and there is tons of efficiency loss.

Motors - They required motor drivers, and at the time of making this robot, motor drivers were hard to find and very expensive. An attempt to make my own resulted in an overheated H-bridge burning me. Then there was the issue of computer control which I never completed. Servos have built in gear boxes, and are easily controllable. I will use them.

Terrain - Taurus did not conform to terrain as expected (partially due to tread failure). T2 will have a dynamic terrain conforming system (rocker boggey). And it's a simple design as well.

Steering - Treads made turning nearly impossible due to friction. I decided to independently control each wheel for T2.

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