2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

We were warned that "Change is Coming," and it certainly did.
It seems as though with the limited robot-robot interaction, we don't need the large, defensive powerhouse that FRC generally sees.

Could it be possible that mecanum drivetrains are the ideal way to go because of their maneuverability?

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

I would agree with you on the drive. While watching the video, I was thinking that would be the most used and best drive train for this year.

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

You see those bumps called the scoring platforms? Those are going to going to cause all sorts of headaches for mecanums. 5-wheel strafe drive with the strafe wheel on a pneumatic suspension should work well, I think.

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

I don't think there is a need to climb those, just go around them.

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

This. Mecanums won't handle the bumps well, also mecanums need a very even weight distribution to work properly, I imagine there are going to be a lot of unevenly distributed robots this year...

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

I would try to set the center of gravity of the robot with the game piece, so when you lift it's balanced.

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

Has anyone looked at the field drawings yet? In the game video it looks like the platforms aren't that high, and there are ramps all around. How high is the platform, and what is the grade of the ramps?

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

The incline is 16 degrees, the height is two inches. This is from page 8 of the game manual. These values are nominal but the official values are in the field drawing.

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

Whenever we did mecanums, we always had suspension on each wheel so that all wheels were always in contact with the floor. They even went over the humps in Breakaway just fine!

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

The angle of the ramp is 16 degrees, and the 'hypotenuse' is 7.125 inches. 7.125*sin(16) works out to 1.96 inches.

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

My guess is this won't be a major issue with a properly built and driven mecanum.

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

For the record, we tried mecanums in 2008 and 2009, and just the plywood under the carpet would make things go wonky if you were trying to do a precise alignment.

I'm not saying they'll be undriveable, I'm just saying they're going to make auto and certain precision tasks a wee bit more challenging and error prone than they need to be.

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

My prediction: There will be mecs that struggle mightily and those that dance like olympic figure skaters.

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

From our team's experience, the only time that mecanums have ever had troubles were on the bridges in 2012. Even then, the problem was the lower coefficient of friction rather than getting up on them, and we were still able to balance 2 robots better than most teams.

Re: 2015: Year of the Mecanum
 

It was the same for us. We used mechanum in 2012 and our only problem was staying in one place on the bridge. We had no problem going up and down it while at an angle.