Gears and Speed/Power

Speed is the rate of movement of an object. In other words speed can be how FAST or SLOW your robot is moving.

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The Driving Gear is connected to the motor

The Driven Gear is connected to the wheel

The driving gear is connected to the motor and is responsible for spinning the driven gear, which is connected to the wheel.

To make the robot move faster, make the driving gear bigger and the driven gear smaller. Do the opposite for more power or torque.

The relationship between the sizes of your driving gear and driven gear is called the “Gear Ratio.”

To turn the 40-tooth gear one entire revolution an 8-tooth gear needs to turn five times to “push” the 40-tooth big gear once.

5 x 8 = 40

You can calculate Gear Ratio by dividing the number of teeth on the Driven Gear by the number of teeth on the Driving Gear.

# teeth on Driven Gear

# teeth on Driving Gear

Gear Ratio =

8 Teeth

40 TeethDriven Gear

Driving Gear

= 5

Gear Ratio = # of Driven Teeth = 40

# of Driving Teeth = 8

Gear Ratio = Driving axle turns = 5

Driven axle turns = 1

= 5

8 Teeth

40 Teeth

Driven Gear

Driving Gear

Write a Gear Ratio like this: 40:8 or 5:1

The Taskbot’s wheels are directly attached to its motors. Remove one wheel and Add the gear modification bar in your kit to the robot. Run a simple Motor CB forward program and compare the speeds of the two wheels.

Does the modified wheel have more power/torque or speed?