Introduction: High Grip Rubber Tires for Robots
Since my Sugru wheels instructable had a big success, I understood that making good wheels for robots is a common topic.
To improve the grip of the tires I tried to create them with liquid rubber. Although you need a good practice to mix the components and obtain a good result (and you'll probably find better tutorials about liquid rubber use), this instructable can give you an example to create very good tires (and wheels) with no specific molds.
Step 1: The Rims
As I usually do, I will start from waste products to make my robot wheels. The blue caps come from many milk cartons, but you can surely use any nice plastic cap from any package. The more the grip is embossed the better your tires will come out.
The blue caps will be the wheels, and now we need something to keep the liquid rubber inside to make the tires. So search some caps or circular containers (little plastic cups, or some plastic package, also a cardboard pipe could be right) a bit wider than the wheels. I suggest this container has a flat interior, with no thread, but you can try also a threaded one to see the result.
The brown caps are secure caps for medicines so I could take off the inside piece, as you can see in the second picture, to have a clear surface on the inner side of the external cylinder.
Step 2: The Match
Now simply glue the smaller cap inside the bigger one, use any glue, but pay attention to not let the glue go to fill the bottom of the cavity you'll create. The more this "mold" is clear, the better your tire will come out. If you use a vinyl glue, or any not-instant one, you can re-position the inner cap on the exact center of the external one, this is extremely important.
Step 3: The Blend
- mix for some minutes both components in their bottles before use them
- don't create air bubbles neither mixing or combining them
- weigh the exact proportion of components with an high precision scale
- mix the mixture for the right time right after combining the components
- don't wait too much to pour the rubber into the mold after mixing it
Step 4: The Pouring
Pour the mixture in the molds, let them react for the right time on an exact horizontal plane, the push hard the diameter of the caps some times to extract the tire. Since the caps are a bit different you can see different geometric patterns on the rubber tires.
Cut the imperfections and examine your new tires. Mine are very far from being perfect...
Step 5: The Tire
Now you can decide whether to keep the tire with the external flat surface, or flip it over to reveal the grip, as you see in this first picture. The grip of this rubber is phenomenal, I think it could be great for little sumo-robots!
Step 6: On the Robot
If you glue the milk caps on a motor (here you can see two very cheap stepper motors) you'll have a perfect transmission system for your robot!
You can see in these pictures the tire mounted regular or reversed (last photo). See you in the next sumo-robot challenge ;-)
16 Comments
5 years ago
Nice job! I've found oogoo (diy sugru) works really well, and also silicone molding putty for casting is a great out of the box solution. My robots use 3d printed tires which is great for automated making but not as good as the above options for traction.
8 years ago
how much was the rubber mix?
8 years ago
How did you connected the wheel to the motor?
Reply 8 years ago on Introduction
with hot-glue if I remember right
8 years ago on Introduction
I wonder if Shoe Goo would work. I've 3D printed some rims and I'm thinking of moulding some tires onto them.
9 years ago on Introduction
I'm mostly interested in where to get that liquid rubber, have never seen it before. I can immediately think of three things I need it for.
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
I bought mine from Prochima, but I'm sure you can find some similar shop in your Country, try a google search with "liquid rubber"
9 years ago on Introduction
clever thnks
9 years ago on Introduction
Amazing job, Andrea!!!!
Reply 9 years ago on Introduction
thanks Mario!
9 years ago on Introduction
woww..great
thanks for idea
9 years ago on Introduction
This is so creative!! I love the way you approached this project... Thanks for sharing!
9 years ago on Introduction
What's the name of the rubber molding you used?
9 years ago on Introduction
Awesome :) Thanks for posting.
9 years ago on Introduction
Very clever! It's nice to see a more refined way of using this material.
9 years ago on Introduction
sweet