omniwheels on steel mesh
 

Looking at the omniwheel designs from last year they seem to be a great idea to replace castors! But has anyone with an omniwheel robot from last year tested them out on the steel mesh? Wouldn't want to put all kinds of work into making one and then find out that it stinks on the mesh. Thanks!

OmniBot
 

Our team had an idea for a omnibot last year and it worket real well, Yes my voice is foaming with sarcasm

Our robot's omniwheels (6" diam) last year (pic uploaded below) were awesoem on carpeting but are not good on steel as they've got aluminum and lexan :P

Our 9" omniwheels this year came in today. Though not as pleasing to the eye as last year's, they're lighter and the treads are made of a very sticky urethane that can go up the mesh easily with our two other 9" wheels which aren't omnis.

why not just make your own wheels? i don't see any point to using those omni wheel things, and not to metion that they are illegal this year anyway, they have metal touching the carpet thats a big no no this year

If you read my post carefully, you'll notice that I said it worked great on carpet but not on steel... and that this year's new ones have URETHANE treads which are basically sticky hard rubber. They are perfectly legal... the great advantage to omni wheels is that they allow you to turn around one point without having your wheels skip... which sucks because that could result in your stack falling down if it not braced. The idea to use them came to our team from Cornell's robocup team.

Also, we did 'make' them. The pic above was something we designed in Inventor and had the Borg Warner guys look at. They then machined them for us with our specifications. We did the same this year for the new 9" wheels... you can't buy these at the quality we have them commercially.

having traction also works for that :cool:

Actually, it doesn't.

When I refer to moving around one point, imagine having a tank drive train... hence, moving forward with one joystick would pivot it around one point. If you had wheels with lots of traction, it'd stick to the floor material well and when turning, would skip up and down causing the robot to shake... hence, smoother wheels would be better for turning around a point. However, when considering gameplay, that's a lack of traction which results in you getting pulled/pushed. Omniwheels offer traction in one axis and rotation in another which allows you to turn smoothly. Using a pair of omniwheels in front and a powerful pair of high traction wheels in the back allows you to get the greatest traction while being able to turn perfectly smoothly.

the omni wheels are legal as long as the wheelie things dont go through the mesh...at least i think so... cause it is a little late to find this out...


bad

I do believe most Omni-Wheels would now be considered illegal. (even if they didn't go throught the mesh) I've only seen a few that didn't have metal or hard plastic contact the carpet.

Omni wheels in general are NOT illegal. Only those that have metal touching the surface are illegal. You mush consider, however, ways to avoid going through the mesh.

It's pretty simple to make it not go through the mesh. If you look at the pic of wheels last year, it'd be impossible to fall through something. This year's current model is roughly the same thing.

I interpreted this as not allowing the normal "hard plastic" side rollers, which serve the same function as cleats. Has there been an update on the forums that I have not seen?

just as long as you don' screw up the carpet it'll be fine

Seems to me that you'd be better off investing in a short 4 wheel drive assembly in the rear and casters up front. Like a tractor-trailer cab
. Other than when entering an incline, you'd have 4 wheels driving. Scrub steering shouldn't be much of a problem if the wheelbase is extremely short.

I would be really scared to see casters going up that mesh...

As for the omni-wheels, I think you'd probably be safe with them, as long as you get ones that ARE NOT METAL, and you find a way to make sure they DO NOT GO THRU THE MESH. Cause if they are metal, or they do go thru the mesh, ur toast.

We're just makin our own wheels......and I must say that they are sexy.....I'll upload some pics once I get some pics (makes sense...)