Ha, first you'll have to get some publicity, the Canadians are going to be the first to get a Government grant in that respect. Another problem is how you are going to control a tracked vehicle, going 60 mph, via a camera. It's hard enough to control them with just remote controls, then you have to factor in lag. I remember that Monster Garage made a full scale remote control car, it was nearly imposable to control.
-Gregory On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 4:36 PM, Frank Pittelli <[email protected]>wrote: > Steven Crooks wrote: > > Reliability would be the major issue for such a vehicle, > > since its supposed to go in harms way. > > From what I've seen from the video and pictures (still haven't found > anything that describes how it's built) and based on almost 10 years of > watching track systems succeed and fail at 1:6 scale (where we > definitely pound the hell out of them) I think their light-weight track > system has a fatal weakness ... sharp spikes embedded in the ground. > > Since the vehicle is lightweight and the tracks appear to be made of > separate treads loosely coupled together (presumably by the tensioned > cables) I think that they would fail catastrophically if they attempted > to drive it over steel spikes stuck into the ground (basically a modern > version of the bamboo tiger traps used in SE Asia). Regardless of the > speed, I don't see how those tracks would be able to go over such an > obstacle without one or more spikes finding gaps between the treads, > thereby ripping them apart. We saw exactly those types of problems on > our original bicycle chain tracks and even with the 2060 chain tracks, > when small tree branches/twigs jammed into the gaps between the treads. > > Such obstacles are so cheap to deploy (dig hole, plant spike, repeat) > even the lowest-tech enemy will have a way to stop or obstruct the > multi-million dollar remote controlled vehicles. Moreover, it will be > hard to see such obstacles through a remote control video monitor when > the vehicle is traveling above 20 MPH. Even if you see the spikes in > time, the operator will have to stop or move around them, exactly where > the enemy mortars, rockets or even RPGs are dialed in. > > If they had simply stolen the "entire" TTS design and used a high-tech > composite belt instead of the tension cables, not only would they have a > track capable of going over such a low-tech obstacle (good luck sticking > a spike through a couple dozen layers of properly chosen synthetics like > kevlar), but it would probably perform better in soft ground and sand as > well. From what I've seen, however, it looks like welding is the H&H > solution for all design problems, so they probably haven't thought about > other approaches. > > If any Pentagon types are reading this ... give Steve, Joe and myself > just a couple $100K research grant and I'm sure we can make an obstacle > that stops the H&H vehicle dead in it's tracks. Throw in a couple more > $100K (plus material costs) and we'll build a track that then overcomes > the same obstacle and anything else they want to throw at it. > > Frank P. > > -- > You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. > To post a message, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] > Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat > -- You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat
