Obstacles

Our main problem right now is the steering system. We are trying to find a way to make it slower and more powerful. We attempted to come up with a system that would drive the rack with a worm gear, but we had problems physically fitting a drive gear onto the worm gear’s axle without interfering with the rack. We tried a system of two worm gears, one driving the other which drove the rack, but couldn’t overcome the limits of friction; the axles just shifted parallel to each other instead of spinning. Worm gears are tricky like that; they are next to impossible to drive with a gear. This is a characteristic we want in the steering system, so that the wheels are held in place and can’t turn the motor themselves, but it worked against us in this particular instance.
Will is currently working on a gearbox he though of. If it works we will probably adopt it; it could potentially provide a very good gearing ratio and be very compact.