Inertia 101 Pro Preview

There are two types of inertia to familiarize you with. You know of one intuitively, the other one is more obscure. Both must be considered when building your own robots, especially in the future for competitions.

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  • #901
  • 17 Dec 2018

What is inertia?

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Inertia in physics is the ability of bodies to resist when trying to change their state of motion.

You can easily explain the inertia just by imagining that you are running very fast. Are you able to stop as soon as you wish? No. Another typical example is when you are cycling and you want to stop - you apply the brake, the tire stops spinning, but the bike continues to move, leaving black rubber strips on the asphalt, evidence of the inertia you had.

Take a look at an interesting video of a master pilot of a helicopter: https://youtu.be/JKnzzYk4vLo

Is inertia an issue when building robots

Yes, in many cases, the robots we design can have the wrong center of mass, and the center of mass is crucial for us to have well-balanced robots.

For the robots, we design in classes, the center of mass is the heaviest part of the robot, that is, the brick. Today's robot's brick is moved a lot ahead of the motors, third wheel, and tires. This causes the front of the robot to tilt and even tumble into the ground when stopped suddenly.

Of course, there are solutions to the problem - change the construction, so that the center of mass is in the correct position: between the three contact points of the robot.

In the field of robotics, there are two large departments: construction and programming. In some cases, one can fix the problem with inertia with changes in the program of the robot.

Second type of inertia: standing still

There is also this type of inertia when the object is still and tends to remain standing still. For example a plate on a silk cloth.

Do not try this at home: https://youtu.be/nSj_MVUsBzg

A teacher may demonstrate this experiment with a piece of paper and a smooth and heavy object, for example, a LEGO motor or the Intelligent Brick. We are not responsible if something falls to the ground and breaks!

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This Tutorial is used in the following courses and lessons

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