Three-axis robot with "bucket-wheels"

grabcad

Hello! I strongly recommend you upgrade your robot's design to what I've presented. Your current robot has several motors: one for the wheel axles and another for the buckets, a complex structure, a significant weight when fully loaded, and low efficiency - mainly due to the lack of additional tools beyond soil collection. I suggest: 1. Simplify the mechanism by removing the bucket motors and buckets themselves, along with their lifting structures and any other devices necessary for bucket operation; 2. Replace the bucket with alternative tools like a robotic arm or drill; 3. Combine the functions of buckets and wheels. Explanation: Your current buckets are essentially hollow wheel cylinders. The rover drives on some cylinders (wheels), while carrying others (buckets) as additional load. This setup is inefficient, especially when buckets aren't in use. I propose you upgrade the wheels to resemble buckets by adding a cutting edge that can retract into grooves when not needed - thus achieving both wheel and bucket functionality. See the picture! If ordinary wheels were replaced with "bucket-wheels," the robot could both drive and collect soil using these "buckets" as needed. This would require three axles and a locking system: when two axles are locked, the robot with the third axis featuring "bucket-wheels" can either load or unload soil. Even fully loaded, there's no weight on the robot's structure because they're in contact with the ground.