The majority of hobbyist robot projects that surface on the internet use either wheels or legs as their method of propelling themselves around. It’s time to consider the under-appreciated tank chassis. Aside from looking insanely cool, it means your robot can easily handle terrain that would cause problems for a robot rolling around on wheels or using a leg based mechanism.
To prove this point take a look at the Raspberry Tank made by Ian Renton. He bought the tank chassis and then added a Raspberry Pi and webcam with the intention of eventually making it autonomous. Check out a video of it in action below. Treads solve a common problem of deciding what to do with the wheels that aren’t being driven by motors. In this case there’s locomotion for each side and by driving just one tread, or driving both in opposite directions, the bot can turn on a dime.
