We used mecanums this year and as a driver, I love them to death. They are perfect for this years game because if I get in a tight situation where I could possibly cross back over a line, I just strafe out of the way, which kept us close to no penalties at Kansas City.

We concentrated on a light robot this year, and we still managed to keep the robot under 80 pounds with bumpers, a battery, and individual suspensions. We did this by only using a 6:1 gear reduction, an 11 tooth sprocket on the motor and a 66 tooth on the mecanum wheel. This greatly reduced weight.

With the suspensions, it can be a good thing to have them, but they are not mandatory. The goal is to keep all 4 wheels on the ground so that the robot doesn't start to go off to one side. They helped this year with the raised feet in the middle of the field. But I did acidentally flip our robot when i hit one of those feet wrong but thats neither here nor there.

The suspensions can cause a problem when strafing. If the CG is very high at all, the robot will tip slightly away from the direction you are strafing, throwing the CG off, but to fix this, just use stiffer springs to tighten up the suspension.

I wouldn't decide on mecanum wheels quite yet, like Matt H. said. But it doesn't hurt doing research now like you are.