[mwtidd]

For the past week or so I've been working on a design for a drive system implementing both mecanum and omni wheels

but right now im on the fence as to which way to go,

whether to allow for a complete omni system (ie separate motors for each mecanum wheel),
or to use two motors (one for each side) and then implement a transmission i designed which allows for the two wheels linked to one motor to change direction and stop (ie for the strafing and diagonal movements).

the down side to the second system is i will not be able to code it to drive in relation to the driver completely, but i believe it will still be possible to code it so it drives in reference to a side, (ie if the right side is facing away from the robot, it now becomes the front),
also the fact that if the robot is strafing or going diagonal, that that is the only movement it can do(ie to rotate the robot the driver would have to stop strafing)

the nice thing about the second system is you would have only two motors,
also the transmission seems to work well with the omni wheel set up, because i was able to align the gears so the only time the omni wheels run is when both mecanums on one side are going in the same direction, the omni wheels allow for the robot to climb which seems to be a significant issue with the mecanum wheels

the drive system would look like this
o/m o o/m
O-----O-----O

the first wheels being both an omni and a mecanum
the second being just and omni
and the third being an omni and a mecanum

all of the wheels on each side would be powered by the same motor, and therefore would go at the same speed



just looking for some feedback
thanks