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Arlo ground clearance — Parallax Forums

Arlo ground clearance

ypapelisypapelis Posts: 99
edited 2014-01-30 13:18 in Robotics
I have looked around the forum for information on Alro and as usual, there is tremendous amount of it, but one thing I cannot pinpoint. What is the ground clearance of the Arlo?

The reason I am asking is because we are considering equipping a lab with a bunch of Arlo-type robots for undergraduate/graduate teaching and R&D. The Arlo is perfect in that we are looking for a platform on top of which we will be building a variety of designs and it is hard to argue with the 60 lb payload! Whereas mostly this will be indoors, we would like to have the option of also working outdoors (with GPS etc.) hence the concern about the clearance. We are not looking for rough off-road behaviors just the ability to handle bumps, small inclines, concrete-to-grass transitions, an occasional rock and even climbing short ledges. Is that within the realm of possibilities

From the various manuals, I can eyeball about 1" of clearance below the battery tray - how off am I? Also, would it be possible to increase it any? Maybe using longer screws and elevating both the casters and the main wheel/motor mounts - may even be willing to fore-go the blind screws and just drilling through the deck if necessary.

-Thanks

Comments

  • bomberbomber Posts: 297
    edited 2014-01-29 16:40
    The guess of 1" of clearance is almost spot on. I have the EDDIE platform, which is almost identical to the Arlo system, and I have taken it outside. It often gets stuck on cracks in the sidewalk, and I haven't risked putting it on grass yet. It should work fine on relatively level paved areas, but for real off-road robotics i recommend Parallax's Wild Thumper robot chassis (http://parallax.com/product/28192). It is considerably smaller than Arlo but can climb over most terrain.
  • ypapelisypapelis Posts: 99
    edited 2014-01-30 13:01
    bomber wrote: »
    The guess of 1" of clearance is almost spot on. I have the EDDIE platform, which is almost identical to the Arlo system, and I have taken it outside. It often gets stuck on cracks in the sidewalk, and I haven't risked putting it on grass yet. It should work fine on relatively level paved areas, but for real off-road robotics i recommend Parallax's Wild Thumper robot chassis (http://parallax.com/product/28192). It is considerably smaller than Arlo but can climb over most terrain.

    Thanks for the recommendation bomber; I have two Wild Thumper robots and their overall quality and build does not appear to be anywhere near the Arlo; with the 6 wheels, there is a lot of dragging during turns as opposed to the Arlo's differential drive setup, and the base model has no encoders. Also, as you said, the Arlo has a lot more space on the deck, so all in all, the WT is not a contender.

    Thanks also for confirming the clearance; we may just have to buy one and try it out!
  • Matt GillilandMatt Gilliland Posts: 1,406
    edited 2014-01-30 13:18
    the guess of 1" of clearance is almost spot on

    Right you are Bomber ;-)

    Hi ypapelis-
    It's limited to the 1" between the two drive wheel because that's where the double-battery tray resides. And, yes, it's nearly the same as the Eddie platform. In actuality, the battery tray makes a pretty good "skid plate" (like on my old Jeep CJ-5 Renegade - golly I miss that car...

    There's a couple of advantages of the Arlo over the Eddie (mechanically speaking)...First, Arlo uses a much lower back-lash motor, which results in a higher effective resolution when reading the encoder data. Secondly, Arlo's motor unit itself is in full production now...the Eddie motors have been discontinued by the manufacturer and there are none left on the planet that we could find.

    Also, don't overlook the HDPE version of the drive system. It's a lot less expensive and still has a very good payload capacity.(20 lbs.)

    -MattG
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