Quote:
Originally Posted by Smoking_Gun
Hi,
Our team wants to use Mecanum Drive this year!
We have a few questions to ask before we could buy this.
We would appreciate if a team that has used this drive system would contact us by email (dark_key@walla.com) or post thiers in here.
Thanks!
Tal Saiag #Neat-Team 1943
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While I appreciate the "wait for kickoff" notices, I also note that overseas shipping will be involved. Even shipping to Canada takes extra time, extra money (both for shipping and brokerage fees) and has the potential for delays at the border. Rush orders really start to become expensive. It is easier to "wait for the kickoff" when you know the parts that you order will show up a couple of days after you place the order. Ordering in advance may well be a prudent decision for overseas teams, although it does entail the risk of having to build your strategy around your technology rather than around the game. You are in the best decision to balance that risk against the risk of shipping delays and expeses.
It is also possible that buying in advance makes sense if your currency is high vs. the US dollar. I wish I had paid our entry fees and bought a couple super shifters a month ago... the team would have saved about $1,000 compared to the cost of those items today.
As for a discussion of the technology, or hearing from teams that have used it, there are numerous threads that you can find by searching the forums. I have posted regarding our team's (positive) experience with mecanums (and the challenges we faced by choosing to use them) to
this thread. Try searching for "mecanum", "meccanum", or "mechanum" as those are common mis-spellings of the word. There is also a great entry on mecanum in wikipedia with links to videos of forklifts and manlifts using the technology.
Jason
P.S. Some
video of our robot and R&D is on line.