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Unread 10-05-2007, 17:00
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dtengineering dtengineering is offline
Teaching Teachers to Teach Tech
AKA: Jason Brett
no team (British Columbia FRC teams)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Rookie Year: 2004
Location: Vancouver, BC
Posts: 1,833
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Re: mecanum vs. omni

Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamHeard View Post
The best advice I can give is use this kind of drive if it is required, not because it is cool.
Adam is quite right... don't assume that mecanum or omni or any other holonomic drive system is going to give you an edge at a competition unless it suits the game, your strategies and the rest of your robot. You will spend more time designing and debugging a more sophisticated drive system than you will a simpler tank-style drive system, and that will take away from something else you could be doing to make your team/machine better.

On the OTHER hand.... YES!! Build a Mecanum because it is cool! Why the heck do we get into this whole robot-building stuff in the first place? Trophies and banners are nice enough, I suppose, but people have seen them before. How many people have seen a mecanum wheel?? Robots that can go sideways really capture people's attention, especially when you bring it back from the competition and are driving it around in the community.

If you base the success of your season on winning a regional, then chances are you are going to be disappointed. If you base the success of your season on building a good team and a cool robot then chances are good that you are going to be successful... and you might even find that you win a fair bit, too!

Jason