Quote:
Originally Posted by jblay
Make a swerve drive setup.
In all seriousness though the real issues with the mecanum wheels in terms of pushing are this:
-They aren't 100% effective at transferring power, a lot of it is lost. This forces you to have to gear higher to be able to go at a reasonable speed which makes you less capable of pushing. It is difficult to do a shifting gearbox with mecanum wheels because each wheel has it's own gearbox and shifting gearboxes are quite heavy.
Hope this helps. As a team that used mecanum wheels last year I would advise against them because when the eliminations roll around and you are facing defense, being able to be pushed sideways easily really hurts your chances and it makes winning very difficult.
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Just a few points, as this debate is never-ending every year.
We geared our mecanums 17.5:1 (CIM shaft to wheel), and found this to be perfect. at 12:1 we were TOO fast. The same speed on last year's bot with kit wheels gave us a perfectly capable and quick base.
The weight of shifting 4 gearboxes isn't extreme. We use dewalt gearboxes, with a cim and mount it's under 5lbs each. For comparison, the AM super shifter is 4lbs without CIM's. The problem becomes shifting all 4 at the same moment.
This year is unique, where you've got a large protected area. An efficient mecanum can out maneuver a defensive robot, as we've done many times this year.