[JesseK]

2 Tips from my point of view of seeing alot of holonomic drives and researching to the extent of creating my own:

1.) Make it driver-centric holonomic. Figure out your driver's controls as well. I'd recommend having a circular nob for rotation as the Z axis and a joystick for all lateral movement. Then, when the joystick moves right, no matter what direction the robot is facing, it laterally moves right from the driver's point of view. If you push the joystick away, no matter what the robot moves down the field away from you. You'll need a gyro for this. Making a true-holonomic drive train is both hard & fun to learn, but it also can provide the agility you seek over a tank drive.

2.) Your manipulator/shooting mechanism/whatever else had better work. If your arm breaks in 2007 or doesn't work well you can't exactly go play effective defense. If your gathering or shooting mechanism in 2006 broke or didn't work you were in the same boat. Climbing ramps with omni drives this year was fairly easy *if* the ramp-bot had rails to guide you up -- otherwise you'd gun it too much and fall right off the side.