I had to revive this thread due to some great discussion found here. Our team has posted a whitepaper addressing a few mecanum misconceptions, and I think all of them are here in this thread: mecanum sacrifices torque and/or speed, is inherently inefficient, et al. The link is in my signature.
*while i'm about to address some points in this thread, i suggest that your responses specific to mecanum go in
this thread
Some points more geared to a teams experience with mecanum:
*NOTE: I'm not advocating for mecanum this year (although we
are using it... most likely) I've just decided for some reason that now after most teams have decided was a good time to start weeding out bad information.
-We don't do a good job with weight distribution or frame flex and have NEVER even considered a suspension, and our bot operates just fine (i.e. very little deviation from expectation). We even balanced on the bridge last year. (would regular wheels have been easier? sure)
-our inexperienced programmers get gyro/encoder feedback working every year without much trouble and then it
reallyoptimizes the driving.
-our drivers have found robot-centric drive vs. regular about the same, and strafing when needed was very easy and intuitive. Field-centric drive is REALLY intuitive and a major upgrade. (I guess you could do a 6wd field-centric program... just never heard of it)
-While we did get 2 sets of andymark 8" (because everyone scared us about them), we never had to do any maintenance during competition (on the wheels that is)
-I've seen over and over the "straw man" argument that if you want to be a block/push defense bot, mecanum is a terrible choice. I've never seen anyone advocate that, and can't recall a team asking input for that idea. Last year driving towards while also orienting the intake towards a ball was actually a defensive technique for which mecanum could be a good choice. The "keep away" defense. Playing "get in the way" style can also have success. Our alliance member last year actually did some heavyweight blocking/pushing (although not as their main strategy) with good success. would 6wd push better? sure. Does mecanum suck at it? no.
-Cool factor IS a valid consideration since we are looking to attract mentors and sponsors