[Oblarg]

Mecanum is not a nightmare to program. It has been done many times before; the knowledge is there, and so is the code itself if you wish to download it. It becomes somewhat harder if you want field-oriented control, but the difficulty there is with the gyro, not with the actual drive.

Mecanum is a fairly good, cheap solution to the omnidirectional problem. It is not a 100% solution; it has notable shortcomings (effectively lower coefficient of friction than traction wheels with the same material, lots of frictional losses when moving sideways, losses due to imperfections in wheel design/construction), but also notable benefits (ease of construction, ease of maintenance, relatively low cost). It is not going to compete with a swerve drive or with a hybrid drive, but it will give you an agile robot (acceleration in FRC, with the exception of 2009's silly teflon wheels/driving surface, has never been traction-limited) and that can strafe. For some games, this is all that is needed; 449's use of mecanum in 2008 was a huge asset for our team, as the anti-roadblock rule in that game made the lack of pushing power a near non-issue. For others, it is not.