Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris is me
I believe 1305 and 1310 had wonderful robots last year and actually used their mecanum drive to their advantage. Seriously.
However - it doesn't meet the strict definition of this thread - I don't think they proved to be better offensive robots adept at evading defenders with their mecanum drive.
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I am, by no means, a fan of mecanum. I have, however, subsided with using it once in the 1 year it has been allowed during my tenure as a Team 2337 member ('09 and '10).
That said, maybe 2010 isn't a good year at which to look. Take teams that didn't have steel-solid ball control (let's face it, like 90% of teams). These teams cannot hold a ball going directly backwards (totally us in early (like until mid-April). Because most ball control mechanisms provided totally backwards force, and little side-to-side control besides friction, a strafe would be even harder than backwards movement for ball control.
This means that most teams couldn't strafe while holding a ball. Thus, they probably didn't strafe! This limited them to essentially a 4 omni wheel drive, on offense anyway, and not exactly like omni, and ability to strafe to get balls, just not while possessing, and multiple other exceptions.
I'm not saying every game won't have similar situations. I don't know.
But let the record show that I am not a fan of using mecanums.
In 2337's defense (most members would go the "it's more maneuverable route"), we used our strafing to hang. Strafe into tower, line up with forwards/backwards motion. We also used it while getting shoved backwards, to turn and strafe, at the same time, getting out of the essential pin. We were pushed both because we were geared for speed, not only due to the mecanums.
As has been mentioned, in 2007 getting pushed at all (especially from the side) was a huge deal, and in 2008 there wasn't a large advantage except not having to turn if you're just doing laps. We did mecanums in 2008. I don't know the reason, but we did okay I guess. Second divisional seed at the CMP...