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Unread 06-06-2015, 12:41
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Re: Swerve with a twist

The NGMH on Figure 5 used spherical wheels rather than the Mecanums. We developed the spherical wheels about the same time as the mecanums were developed in the early 90's. The big blue machine was a bomb loader. It has a 7 dof force reflecting arm on a holonomic omnidirectional vehicle. We really needed the mobility to be able to maneuver under the wing of an aircraft. This was probably (at the time, mid 90's) one of the coolest omnidirectional vehicles. You could drive it, pull it, load bombs... The arm had a 4000 lb payload capacity.

The funniest experience was we used it to load a B1 which has a bay rather than pylons under the wing. We had to attached a platform and ride the arm, with the weapon, up into the aircraft. My safety officer was worried I'd fall so she chained me to the weapon (not live of course). Sometimes you just shake your head and laugh.