Our wheels work like traditional omni-wheels. They aren't at 45 degree angles from the sides like yours, so we really only have 2 motors for any given direction if we're pushing using any of our sides. We were thinking of using
AndyMark's converter to put 2 motors on each wheel, but the time and weight required didn't meet our needs. We're fast and graceful, and our team has a bad history of getting into pushing matches, so why bother? And I really don't want to see any harm come to those thin plexiglass panels I helped make ;p
Oh, and our wheels are custom designed. Each omni-wheel has 112 spacers, nuts, bolts, washers, wheels, and hubs, each hand assembled, tightened, and filed. We ordered the smaller wheels from the blue book but the supplier ran out, so abou 1/3 of our wheels don't match
This is going to make me sound like a dunce, but what are rack and pinion?