Help me choose a tracked or 4WD robot platform

zoomkat:
[What is the function of the rotary encoders? The bots you are looking at by design have a lot of slippage on their operating surface.

I was planning to implement closed-loop control, to enable the robot to drive as straight as possible etc. Therefore I'd like to measure the angular velocities of the wheels. I didn't realize that slippage would pose such a major problem.

Wouldn't encoders at least help in detecting slippage and compensating for it? Combined with other sensors like an electronic compass or an accelerometer maybe?

Thanks for your comment!