Building Robots With Lego Mindstorms

142 Chapter 8 • Becoming Mobile

Both models employ a rack and pinion steering mechanism where an 8t gear

(the pinion) meshes with a special plate with teeth, a sort of “unrolled gear” (the

rack).The difference between the chassis in Figure 8.12 and the one in Figure 8.13

is that we built the latter using extra parts that make our life easier: three 1 x 10

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Using Ackerman Steering for Smooth Turns

True-life steering vehicles implement a more sophisticated scheme called

Ackerman steering (from the name of the person who first studied it).

In our simple design, the steering wheels turn at the same angle, but

this is not entirely correct—during ...