Hello CD,
My team is currently working on a pretty unique drive-train concept that features a standard 6WD with 4 traction wheels in the back and 2 omni wheels in the front. There will also be though an omni wheel mounted in the back center of our robot that is perpendicular to the other wheels in the drive-train that will also be able to drop down and push the 4 traction wheels off the ground leaving only 3 omni wheels touching the ground.
Some pics for understanding:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-L...k/IMG_0980.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-q...k/IMG_0941.JPG
Video of Omni Wheel Being deployed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxj3X...bJvKbEC9aouLqw
We tested to see if this would actually work by mapping the middle omni wheel to a joystick value. By manually compensating we found that we were in fact able to move in any direction like a holonomic drive robot.
Omni Directional Drive Test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu4Cj...71FAAAAAAAABAA
What we would like to do now is have 2 separate drive modes; standard and omni directional. We got the standard drive already down but the omni directional one is a bit difficult. What we basically want to have is a steering wheel controlling rotation, and a joystick for throttle and lateral movement. What would be the logic for this to be done correctly? Has this been done before? We are programming in lab-view by the way.
Thanks and please ask for clarification if necessary.