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Unread 09-01-2013, 09:27
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Ryan Dognaux Ryan Dognaux is offline
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Re: Mecanum vs Treads

I'll be the voice from the other side since so many seem to immediately dismiss mecanum wheels.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik View Post
Any precision driving you try to do near the pyramids is guaranteed to take twice as long on mecanums as it would on a 6 wheel drive.
I don't think this is true, at all. Guaranteed? Would love to know why it's guaranteed.

One set of wheels, either front or back, should have some kind of suspension or adjust-ability built in to compensate for the variations in the floor around the pyramid in order to maintain driving as usual. However, I'd argue that even without it you would probably still be able to strafe with two front wheels on the raised part & two wheels off the raised part. Even weight distribution would be important but it would still work, perhaps with a little driver compensation involved.

If your team is considering mecanum wheels, it needs to be because your team thinks it gives you a competitive advantage and that it plays a part in your overall design strategy. Maybe your frisbee intake from the slot is on the side of your robot, so you can strafe into the wall and pick up frisbees but have your shooter on the front or back of your robot. That's just one example. A mecanum drive also means you're choosing to play pure offense, which isn't a bad thing. Give your driver enough time to learn how to really use the drive effectively.

My opinion is that you have a wide open field this year, fewer obstacles than last year to navigate around and a quick mecanum drive could be very effective if the driver is well-versed in using it.

I don't get this notion of dismissing mecanum drives just because they haven't 'been to Einstein.' The majority of teams in FIRST haven't been to Einstein, that doesn't mean the choices they made or will make for their robots are wrong.
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Last edited by Ryan Dognaux : 09-01-2013 at 09:36.