I am participating in a robotics competition. I am supposed to design and build two robots. Out of these, one cannot have a driving actuator (it can have a steering actuator though, fed by a line following circuit). The other is supposed to drive the non-driving robot through an obstacle course, without touching it. This is kind of driving me crazy since at one point the separation between the two robots is 60 cm (23 inches).
Ways I've considered:
- Wind Energy (wont work, need huge sails)
- Magnetic Repulsion of some sort
Now repulsion I've spent a lot of time studying.
My solution was to use strong permanent magnets on the non-driving robot (Neodymium,N52) and electromagnets on the driving robot.
But, after doing a huge load of calculations came to the conclusion that not enough force can be transmitted over the distance as magnetic fields fall off too quick.
Rulebook: http://ultimatist.com/video/Rulebook2016_Final_website_1_Sep_15.zip
I am really looking for even a pointer here. Is there a trick somewhere that I am missing?
