Switching to omni wheels
 

So now that the robot is in the bag staring at us our team has begun to think about everything that go wrong. One of our big areas of concern is the wheels on carpet. We only had one chance to navigate the tank drive on carpet and it went badly. So we have been thinking about changing the wheels from the KOP out for omni wheels. Obviously we would have to do this after unbagging at competition. Would it be relatively simple switch? Do the omni wheels mount to the sprockets in the same way as our current wheels? Also is slamming into the barrier going to damage them?

Re: Switching to omni wheels
 

We used the plastic Omni wheels in 2011 and found them to be excellent, they are incredibly robust and Should work fine.

Re: Switching to omni wheels
 

Is it a simple switch? That depends on your setup, sorry for the ambiguous answer but thats the truth.

Do the omni wheels mount to the sprockets in the same way as our current wheels? Most AndyMark wheels have the same bolt pattern. You probably will need to make sure that the hub is spaced so that the chain does not rub the wheel.

Also is slamming into the barrier going to damage them? Probably. Creating a skidplate may help here.

Good luck.

Re: Switching to omni wheels
 

You should have no problem going over to omni-wheels. As previously mentioned, the bolt pattern is the same. For this year's season I would stay away from the plastic ones if you don't think you will have press (and some lubrication) to get the bearings in. At last year's competition we cracked two of them and there was no bump or bridge to cross. I suspect the failure originated from a student using a mallet or hamper to get the bearings in.

Again, omni's are fine, but if you get aluminum one's its is one less thing to worry about.