Improved Mecanum Wheels
 

http://www.araa.asn.au/acra/acra2002...eter-Tlale.pdf :rolleyes:

I thought with all the talk of new ideas for FIRST robots and drivetrain and mechaums I would thorw this link out there. I really like the chasis design they have with both Mechnaum wheels and pneumatic wheels on pg.4. There is also useful info on the mechaum wheels themselves. All in All very cool link. Tell me what you engineers and mechanical people think about doing this on a FIRST robot.

Thank you and hope this is informative and interesting.
- Drew

Re: Check it out
 

i quickly read/skimmed the article and there are some interesting points about efficiency of the different mountings of the mecanum wheel rollers. As far as the drive base with 2 sets of wheels the applications for FIRST are limited because of weight. it also seem unnecessary because their only reasoning for the 2 sets of wheels is rough terrain which we won't typically have in FIRST.

Re: Check it out
 

This is definitely cool. I seem to remember it from somewhere but after taking a second look i think I'm going to forward it to the rest of my team. Thanks! :)

Re: Check it out
 

Mr.Needel I see your point however you do need to push sometimes during a match. :) thanks for the input.

-Drew

Re: Check it out
 

please....Mr. Needel is my father :rolleyes:

Re: Check it out
 

There have always been problems with using mecanum for FIRST: firstly the programming and control is tricky, and making the wheel itself is rather anoying. I for one will hopefully be having a mecanum robot this year, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I chose to go this path... but anyway, this article is a very interesting one. I appreciate how they push the design of the mecanum wheel to its limit in efficiency. However, I think the most I would ever consider is putting pneumatic locks on the rollers to improve forward efficiency.

Thanks for posting this article.

Re: Improved Mecanum Wheels
 

I <3 mecanums. I just wish my team felt the same way :(

Re: Improved Mecanum Wheels
 

you may be interested in the following discussions of Mecanum wheels, several of which link to the same paper.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hlight=mecanum
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hlight=mecanum
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hlight=mecanum
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hlight=mecanum
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hlight=mecanum
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...hlight=mecanum

Re: Improved Mecanum Wheels
 

I know about mechaums I am talking about the two diffrent wheels design on p.4 of the link. Weather or not people think it is adventageous or worth putting the time and effort to making. Sry I didn't clarify this earlier.

Re: Improved Mecanum Wheels
 

Several teams have, in years passed, built drive trains that have two sets of wheels or treads, with only one being engaged to the ground at a time. They were most typically used in games that were traction-heavy such as 2002.

You can look for examples on, I believe, the following robots:
2002 -- Team 810
2002 -- Team 111
2002 -- Team 467
2003 -- Team 980

Re: Improved Mecanum Wheels
 

You mean 2003. :) http://www.team980.com/movies2003/Te...arShiftMed.mov

Re: Check it out
 

Oh? Why?


-dave

Re: Check it out
 

Dave, don't be mean to people who haven't already read the technical specs for this year's water game. It's not our fault we aren't on the game design committee. :rolleyes:

Re: Improved Mecanum Wheels
 

Also, in 2001, 190 used two sets of different sized wheels (essentially, it was a shift on the fly transmission) and in 2003 190 used two sets of wheels mounted at a 90 degree angle to allow us to crab sideways by dropping the second set.

Re: Improved Mecanum Wheels
 

In both 2002 and 2003 Team 358 used two sets of wheels at 90 degrees to one another to accomplish our crab drive. One set was mounted on an outside frame and the other on an inside frame that was raised and lowered pneumatically.

I remember 190's 2003 drive from the BAE Regional.